Ezeltje rijden: donkey ride on the beach of Scheveningen

Isaac was - like his father Jozef - a regular visitor of the pretty seaside village Scheveningen that towards the end of the 19th century had developed into a sophisticated beach resort which was popular with the Dutch elite. Jozef often stayed in a villa at the Oranje Hotel which was placed at his disposal by one of his enthousiasts. The German artist Max Liebermann, who was a family friend, often came to stay. Isaac spent his summers with his father in Scheveningen from 1895 onward. Whilst Jozef had been gaining popularity for his paintings of the burdensome and insecure existence of fishermen and their families, Isaac was inspired by the fashionable life on the boulevards and beaches. Isaac, as a cosmopolitan, preferred to depict the worldly pleasures of the well-to-do, painting children enjoying donkey-rides on the beach whilst their parents were resting on beach chairs on the terrace of the Kurhaus Hotel or strolling on the Boulevard. Even in the years when Isaac lived abroad he would return to The Hague and Scheveningen in the summers to paint there.