Isaac Israels

Anonymous sale, Berlin, Dannenberg, 27–28 March 2023, lot 8372;

Where acquired by the present owner. 

Isaac Israels painted a series of works depicting the zoo in the Hague in 1916–17. The zoo was located directly opposite his home on the Koninginnegracht. In the present work, Israels has captured an autumnal scene and the guard is likely Piet Ponsen, a legendary animal keeper at that time, whom Israels depicted in several of his oil paintings from this period.

The RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art History, lists two oil works (without measurements or an image) that could apply to the present work. In both instances they were sold by Israels’ personal art dealer Frans Buffa & Zonen in 1917 to the Dutch collector Jan Michiel Pieter Glerum, who bought many of Israels' works at the time. Both paintings became then part of the van Wely Collection.