Isaac Israels 1865-1934

The present lot was most probably executed during Isaac Israels' ten years stay in Paris (1904-1914). After the Amsterdam fashion house Hirsch had introduced him to the Parisian fashion houses Decroll and Paquin, he was allowed to work inside the fitting rooms and studio's, depicting the seamstresses and essayeuses at work. 

The seamstresses at work here are most probably Paquin's, where Israels often worked. This subject earned him great fame. Contrary to the colourful, sunny outdoor paintings from his Paris years (like the famous views of the Bois de Boulogne), the indoor scenes are very much kept in subdued tonalities, enlivened by a subtle colour accents. This must have been very much like reality in those days, with girls working long hours in darkish, scarcely lit  rooms. The beautifully rendered figures are a great example of Israels' daring, virtuoso style of painting, prompting Dolf Welling to write: 'Israels was an outstanding example of someone who could look. He confines himself to life as an aesthetic phenomenon. He was keen to capture that life, to hold a moment that would never return. But what struck him most in that moment was a human trait, a mood in his subject, which he was able to communicate in an inscrutable way' (D. Welling, Isaac Israels. The sunny world of a Hague Cosmopolitan, The Hague 1991, p. xii)