ISRAELITES, lerti-61-its. See JEWS.
ISRAtLS, es'ra-als', JOSEF ( 1S24— ) . A Dutch genre painter, born at Groningen in North Holland. He is of Jewish parentage. and was intended for a commercial career, but he early showed a taste for art, and was sent to Amster dam, where he studied under Kruseman and Pieneman. Afterwards he became a pupil of Picot and Seheffer, and of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. under Delaroche. In 1S4S he returned to Amsterdam, and for several years painted historical pictures, still influenced by his last master, Delaroche. His real style was not revealed until his return from Zandvoort, a fish ing village near Haarlem, where he had gone for his health. He continued to live principally at Amsterdam until he settled at The Hague iu 1s70. In 1S62 his pictures "The Cradle" and "The Shipwrecked Mariner," exhibited in Lon den, excited much interest. "The Cradle," with its intimate charm, and touch of agreeable senti mentality. was typical of many of the interiors, both in oil and water-color, that he executed afterwards. An example of this later painting is "Expectation." in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. It is a moving. homely pic ture of the genre he made famous by "Interior of the Orphan Asylum at Katwijk" (1S67) : "The Frugal Meal :" "The Silent House," in the Glas gow .Museum; "An Interior," in the Dordrecht
Gallery; "Alone in the World," Amsterdam Gal lery; "A Son of God's People," "Before Parting." "Through Darkness to Light." His "David Be fore Saul" is in a different manner. As he grew older. his work gained in breadth and poetic power. The studies of fisher-folk, by which he is equally well known, include the rather melo dramatic "Shipwrecked Mariner:" "The Zand voort Fisherman." in the Amsterdam Gallery: and his great canvas "The Toilers of the Sea." which with "Between the Field and Seashore," and "The Bric-a-brac Dealer," won medals of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He also received a cold medal at the Universal Exposi tion of 1SS9. lsraels is often compared with Millet, but to Millet's repose he nearly always added pathos. Ilis general treatment is broad and realistic, and his color, at first. pronounced, was afterwards modified with peculiar, misty atmospheric effects. Israels's etchings are nota ble for their simplicity and sureness of touch. Consult: Neteher and Zilehem, Josef Isrei'ls, rhom-mc ct lartistc (Amsterdam, 1891) ; Ma ther, History of Modern Painting (New York, 1896).