Around 1900 Isaac Israels was first introduced to the world of the Amsterdam fashion-houses by the widely known Dutch paintress Thérèse Schwartze (1851-1918). It was trough the famous fashion-house Hirsch at the Leidseplein that he obtained permission to make sketches in the workrooms, fitting-rooms and during fashion-parades. This meant a considerable extension of his subject matter from then on. Besides his favorite and typical contemporary subjects, like nightlife in the city, everyday life in the streets, in parcs and on the beach, he found new and interesting studyobjects in the elegant seamstresses, mannequins, essayeuses, shop-girls and eager shoppers: they would fascinate him troughout the rest of his career. In Paris as well, where he owned several studios and stayed of and on from 1904 until 1913, he visited fashion-houses on more than one occasion. In a letter he once stated: 'Ik ben (...) hoofdzakelijk naar Parijs gegaan, omdat ik daar een goede introductie had bij een groote couturier, en zoo komt men van het een tot het ander.'
The present lot has been rendered with Israels' characteristic broad, flat expressionist strokes, giving a spontaneous though sharply observised impression of reality, and in which the model leaning to a mirror receives more attention than the interior, only indicated with a few telling lines and colours. In comparison to his 'plein air' compositions, the works that came into being indoors are of a more subdued character, darker and tonalistic, with shades of grey, brown, deep pink and purple, here and there enlivened by a touch of lively red, yellow or blue of a piece of textile or bouquet.

Please compare the present lot with the similar composition 'Mannequin, leaning against a mirror', 1919-1924, private collection, in: Anna Wagner, Isaac Israels, Venlo 1967/1985 (cover illus.)

See colour illustration and back cover illustration