Twee koeien en een melkend meisje 1834 - 1911

Jozef Israëls made this pencil drawing, entitled ‘Two Cows and a Milking Girl’, at an unknown date. Israëls was a prominent figure in the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists active between about 1860 and 1890. In its subdued realism and focus on the lives of rural workers, the Hague School sought to provide an alternative to the dominant styles of the day. This modest drawing speaks to the group’s wider ambition to democratize artistic subject matter. The Hague School was reacting against the institutional structures of the art world, like the academy and the art market, which they saw as elitist. They wanted to make art that was more relevant to the lives of ordinary people. In the process of understanding the art of Israëls and his colleagues, we, as historians, are attuned to social conditions and institutional critique. Research into exhibition history, art criticism, and the writings of the artists themselves can help us understand the dynamics of art and social change.