Isaac Israels (Dutch, 1865-1934)
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Isaac Israels (Dutch, 1865-1934)

Revue girls at Scala, The Hague

Details
Isaac Israels (Dutch, 1865-1934)
Revue girls at Scala, The Hague
signed 'Isaac Israels' (lower right)
oil on canvas
121 x 93.5 cm
Painted circa 1930.
Provenance
The artist's estate sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 10 December 1935, lot 150, as: Scala-danseressen bij trap.
Exhibited
Groningen, Museum voor Stad en Ommelanden, Isaac Israels, 3 March-1 April 1956, cat.no. 44, as: Scene uit een revue.
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Isaac Israels, 7 April-7 May 1956, cat.no. 44.
's Hertogenbosch, Provinciaal Museum Den Bosch, Isaac Israels, 12 May-9 June 1956, cat.no. 44.
Special notice
Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,001. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Lot Essay

The Hague is where Isaac Israels worked most during the 1920's. Although he never quite settled, Israels travelled quite extensively during this period, he did consider The Netherlands an excellent place to work because: '... nothing ever happens here and there is no distraction like in Paris ...' (see: Anna Wagner, Isaac Israels, Rotterdam 1967, p.49). The Revue girls in the present lot, executed circa 1930, may have been painted on one of the many occasions that Israels sat backstage at the Scala Theatre in the Wagenstraat in The Hague. The world of entertainment, which he had been drawn to as a young boy, still held a fascination for him later in life. He was always interested by the world of theatre and its glitter and glamour and he would sit in one of the small dressing rooms and finish several canvasses in one evening. He was also fond of painting backstage, creating studies of, although unwilling to pose, the American revue star Josephine Baker or in the lobby, painting the audience. He would occasionally invite performers to pose for him on stage the morning after a show, working seriously and continuously for hours on end. Israels retained his engagement with modern society up to the last years of his life, always rendering the magic of light, movement and colour to canvas.

The present lot is a fine example of the artist ability to capture the dramatic and overwhelming atmosphere of the Scale Revue. Isaac Israels has frozen a moment of great elegance, vivacity and above all entertainment in time. The spectator is drawn in by the ease and the fast pace of the brushwork, leaving the eye to interpret and enjoy a spectacle of colour by this master of Dutch Impressionism.

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