Attributed to Josef Israels (1824-1911) Dutch, Oil on Panel. Titled 'Children Beside a Bridge'. Overall Size: 14 1/8 x 16 5/8 in. Sight Size: 9 x 11 3/8 in. #1059 . Josef Israels is known for Hague School tonalist historical, figure, landscape and religious painting. Born in Groningen, Holland, in 1824, Josef Israels was brought up in the traditions of the Jewish faith and destined for the rabbinate. His interest in drawing grew stronger with age however, and in 1840 his father finally relented, sending him to Amsterdam. There he spent his days working in the studio of Jan Kruseman and his evenings painting at the Royal Academy under Jan Pieneman, both leading portrait painters. In Paris, Israels studied a short time with the historical painter Francois Picot and also at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It was however, the humble fisher-folk of Zandboort, a remote village on the northern coast of Holland, who determined the direction of his art. There, in 1855, he observed their daily routine, their natural, simple existence, with its sorrows and terrors and little joys, all unspoiled by the requirements of society. His eyes were opened to the beauty of real life and he came to see its drama was well worth depicting. Of his style and the influence of Rembrandt the artist stated: "I began to realize that true art does not consist in smoothly finished drawing and scrupulously exact coloration. I perceived that I had to occupy myself much more with the correct appreciation of light and shade, with the attitudes and movements of beings and thing… In Rembrandt alone did I find that breadth and freedom of execution which was lacking in all the others."