A young lady reading in the Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

Paris, the cultural capital of Europe during the fin-de-siecle, played an important role in the artistic life of Isaac Israels. As a young man Isaac regularly travelled to Paris with his parents and sister to visit the annual Salon des Artistes Français. The artist spoke French fluently, apparently with a typically Parisian accent. Isaac was well informed about the new artistic movements in the French capital and met various innovative artists, like Stéphane Mallarmé, Berthe Morisot, Odilon Redon and Emile Zola in 1889. In June 1903 Israels left Amsterdam for Paris where he was introduced to the important fashion-house Paquin. Isaac was often inspired by the beauty of the young 'Parisiennes' whom he encountered in parks like the Bois de Boulogne and Jardin des Tuileries, as in the present lot, but also on the Champs Elysées, on the Place Vendôme and in the café-chantants like the Moulin Rouge and the Moulin de la Galette. In his Parisian period he turned his impressions of the Parisian atmosphere into a large number of dynamic paintings, watercolours, pastels and drawings. This period may be considered the finest of his career.

The present lot is an excellent example of his Parisian style. The light palette and rapid treatment of the subject matter are stylistic elements that were used by the French Impressionists, who led Isaac to change his palette. However, Isaac Israels works are not as extreme in terms of their focus on colour and light as some of his French contemporaries: his main focus was on subject matter. To him, the characteristic portrayal of a situation remained the most important. The present lot characterizes the elegance and beauty of Parisian city life around the turn of the century. It is precisely this harmonious vitality that Israels achieves and makes tangible in the present pastel.