The Works Of Jozef Israels ( 1824-1911 ) And Vincent Van Gogh

The relationship between Impressionism and Expressionism can be considered by examining the works of Jozef Israels (1824-1911) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). These coexisting and overlapping artist’s lives and compositions, display the evolution and transition of artistic styles in the second half of the nineteenth century. The impressionist movement began in the 1870’s by a group of artists rejected and harshly criticized by the established art world and its critics in authority, particularly the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Several common characteristics encompassed this radical new artistic style. Images rendered from the artist’s everyday world strayed away from historical, religious or mythological subjects. Natural landscapes were painted without idealization and used vibrant light colors, which at times were mixed directly on the canvas contrary to the traditional darker palettes of their predecessors. The technique using quick, spontaneous brushstrokes enabled the artist to capture fleeting moments of light without concern for well-defined lines of a meticulous finish. Compositions were unhampered by traditional rules allowing for experimentation often framing and cropping subjects in shocking ways. As discussed by Soltes, Joseph Israels was a genre painter and the preeminent impressionist of the Netherlands, inspired by â€Å"wonderful slices of middle class life, people at work and people at play, which he invested with the very impressionist style of loose and