Jozef Israëls - Fishermen Carrying a Drowned Man [c.1861], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.
This painting was probably painted in Amsterdam, and is based on sketches made by the artist on the coast at Zandvoort. It was exhibited at the Salon in 1861 and at the Royal Academy, London in the following year. The composition of the painting shows the influence of crowd scenes by Daumier, while its mood of sympathy for the trials of peasant life is redolent of Millet. Against a darkened sky the body of the drowned fisherman is carried along the foreshore by his companions. The figures seem small in relation to the expanse of sea and land, and those in the foreground, presumably the man's wife and children, appear weighed down with grief.
The best-known 19th-century Dutch painter of scenes of peasant life, Israëls was born at Groningen and trained first with Jan Adam Kruseman and then at the Amsterdam Academy under Jan Willem Pieneman. He also received training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, returning to Holland in 1847. His earliest works were romantic historical paintings, but after staying at Zandvoort in 1855 he concentrated on peasant scenes, usually with fishermen, which recall works by his contemporaries in France. In his later years Israëls lived in The Hague and became internationally famous, exhibiting in Paris and London as well as in Holland.
[Oil on canvas, 129 x 244 cm]
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