Women dancing at a cafe, The Hague

The present lot was exhibited for the first time in Paris, at the Salon d'Automne in 1926 titled as 'Dancers'. After that it was known as 'Women dancing in a café, Amsterdam', but this title appears to be wrong. This might be caused by the resemblance of the subject matter with Israels' earlier works of the Zeedijk in Amsterdam from the 1890's, a neighbourhood often visited by the artist and his friends George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) and Willem de Zwart (1862-1931). Between 1925 and 1934 Israels chose the Scala theatre in The Hague as his subject. It has been suggested that the location of the present lot is the Bodega, also known as Scala Café, located at the left side of the main entrance. It was a well-known place where the public before and after the shows crowded the space. The suggestion derives from a comparison between the present lot and 'At the Scala Café, The Hague', circa 1930 (fig.1). Both paintings show almost the same entourage and the same dancing ladies. A comparable watercolour can be found in this sale as lot 30.

We kindly thank Freek Heijbroek of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam for his help in cataloguing this lot.