r/vangogh

Van Gogh mentions his admiration for the renowned Dutch painter Jozef Israëls (1824-1911) several times in his letters to his brother Theo: “[he is a painter] whom I like very much indeed.” He was full of praise for Israëls’ work, calling him one of “the* *peasant painters of this century.”

Israëls’ Peasant Family at the Table and works of fishing scenes inspired Van Gogh’s 1885 masterpiece The Potato Eaters.

Jozef’s son Issac Israëls (1865-1934) became a painter in his own right. He enjoyed an intimate romantic relationship with Vincent’s sister-in-law Jo Bonger (the woman who made it her life’s mission to preserve Vincent’s work and make him famous!) from 1895-1897, and shared a deep friendship with her from 1915-1920.

Issac Israëls developed great admiration for the late Van Gogh’s work in the same way Van Gogh admired his father. In the winter of 1915-1916 he borrowed from her Van Gogh’s Yellow House, Bedroom, and Fifteen Sunflowers. He used these paintings as backdrops in at least seventeen of his own works! (I’ve only shown Woman Standing in Front of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, 1920, because I was having trouble uploading several pictures at once.)

Why do I share this? Because I think there is something very beautiful in the fact that Van Gogh so admired Jozef Israëls’ work as a poor, unknown artist, never knowing that after his death, Jozef’s own son would so admire him. That he would become even more famous, influential and respected than the great artist he took inspiration from.

“I’m still very busy Vincenting,” Issac wrote happily to Jo while creating his paintings.

Sources if you’re interested in learning more about Jo and Issac’s relationship and the Israëls (there’s more info on Jozef than Issac):

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/visit/whats-on/exhibitions/overview-past-exhibitions/captivated-by-vincent

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/19/lovers-to-friends-the-intimate-story-of-van-goghs-sister-in-law-and-the-artist-isaac-israels

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0383V1987

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/dutch-masters/story/jozef-israels-10

https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/israels-jozef

Location: Kröller-Müller Museum

The Sower with Setting Sun (1888)

Quote from the painting’s bio on the Van Gogh Museum’s website.

To Van Gogh, sowers represented the agricultural cycle and therefore the eternal cycle of life and its renewal throughout the seasons. As a man struggling with his mental illnesses, I think this theme was a very vivid, hopeful, and encouraging one to Van Gogh.

It also held religious meaning for him from the Bible’s Parable of the Sower, in which the Gospel is the seeds, the Sower is the person who spreads it, and the people are the soil who respond to it. While he didn’t believe in organized religion at this point in his life and the Parable of the Sower is not literally what this painting depicts, Van Gogh saw God in the beauty of nature and the emotions of people, especially from the lower class such as workers and farmers.

What’s so striking about The Sower to me is the deep reverence Van Gogh held for the rural and working class, whom many look past or look down on. I think if everyone saw the world the way Van Gogh did, it would be a place as beautiful as his paintings.