 Israels was the son of a famous Dutch painter born in 1885 and
perhaps the greatest Dutch painter of the second half of the 19th century after Vincent
Van Gogh, whose famous Sunflowers painting once decorated his studio in the Hague.
Israels, along with Witsen and Breitner, was the foremost figure in the late Dutch
Impressionist movement also called the school of the Haque. Long fascinated by exotic
subjects he had painted Javanese dancers, musicians and princes living and performing in
Holland and Paris already in the 19th century. Israels traveled the world extensively and
in 1931 he visited the Dutch East Indies and Bali with the famous Dutch painters, Witsen
(after whom Hofker was named) and Veth. For years collectors in Jakarta avoided him
because they believed he came from a nation with which Indonesian does not recognise. |
