Isaac Israels

Likely purchased from the artist;

Thence by descent to the present owner.

In 1900, thanks to an introduction from the society portrait painter Thérèse Schwartze (1852–1918), Israels became acquainted with the directors of the fashion house Hirsch & Cie. Situated prominently on Amsterdam's Leidseplein, the opening of the store in the Dutch capital in 1882 introduced French haute couture to the city. Israels' timing was perfect, coinciding with highly successful years for the fashion house as demand rose and business boomed. He had access to all areas of the business, from fashion shows and sewing studios to the fitting rooms.

Here Israels depicts, in his characteristic gestural broad sweeps of paint, a dress-maker fitting her client or model with her newest creation, an ensemble of a flowing black skirt, white blouse, and sheer diaphanous shawl. Whereas Israels had earlier painted customers at night outside the Mars hat shop on the Nieuwendijk in 1893 (Groninger Museum), his experience in the 1900s allowed him to go behind the scenes.

Like Degas, Israels saw the patterns of production and consumption which defined the fashion world as a synecdoche for modern urban life, allowing him to define a personal vision of modern femininity. The reflections of both the seamstress and the model in the mirror also call to mind Edouard Manet's famous depiction of contemporary life, Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère, a painting Israels would have known well, as it was shown at the 1882 Paris Salon at which Israels made his debut