Jozef Israëls

"But one morning when the model for the painting ['Nothing More / Alone'] had been ordered, the man was sitting, waiting in the studio. When Israel came in, he saw him sitting, drowsing with his hands on his knees, the figure in shade, while the light from the window [in the studio] was dominating the scene. He understood that in this way the actual mystery, the real affection of the scene, became infinitely stronger, and so he painted his work and so it remained. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

".. [Jozef] Israels paints the floors of his interiors, and produces a perfectly level appearance in them as they gradually retreat from the spectator.. .The effect is gained by a masterly combination of linear and aerial or colour perspective, and by getting the values absolutely true, all of which gives the appearance of depth to the flat surface the painter has to work on. It helps largely to give a feeling of atmosphere to the scene, and we are able to follow the strong light in the foreground as it plays round figures and furniture through finely graduated passages of colour, until it is lost in the dim distance."

"This double effect of treating the light inside the room ànd outside is very characteristic of Israels, and it has not been treated in this natural way by anyone before him. Yet natural as it seems, it has a magic power; for it carries our thoughts out of ourselves, out through the window in the walls that shut us in, and we dream as we gaze away into the far beyond."

"Israels, and his friend and follower (yet powerful artist on his own account) Blommers, have painted them under every possible condition: cottage Madonnas, [cottage] breakfasts, [cottage] dinners, feeding baby, and all the ages of motherhood and childhood are there. For years Israels had in his studio the interior of a peasant's cottage erected as a model, and his Reveries, Weary Watchers, and kindred subjects have come therefrom."

"The exquisite work of art of this master is painted in a truly mysterious way, only by the nervous ability of that unlearned hand; with messy darking licks and scratchy sweeps of paint, creating a wonderful mixture of sharp relief and decaying confusion.. .Rough and soft, rottenness and suppleness, filthiness and purity conjure up a grandiose depth of life with [the works of] Israëls. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Those miraculous delicate interior-atmospheres of Israëls, that transparently tissue of air and light, dissolving itself apart from all solid colors... and the slightly nebula, both in the house and outdoors, the grayness that is just feeling, the melancholy that is just tenderness.. ..the painter of the covered light, which barely breaks through.. ..but only floats.. ..through the houses full of care and nostalgia or lights up in the staring eyes of weary toilers, men or women.. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"

"Next morning [after J.W. Bilders had visited Israëls and thought his recent painting was 'somewhat gray'. he got up early to put the whole painting in the soap from top to bottom and after breakfast after the walk he was still picking up the work a bit; then the painting was good. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)"