During his lifetime, Jozef Israëls was the most internationally renowned Dutch painter of the 19th century and the most important representative of the School of The Hague. He studied at the Minerva Academy in Groningen from 1835 to 1842 and then went to Amsterdam, where he took courses at the Royal Academy. Between 1845 and 1847, he studied in Paris. Israëls kept returning to France and was intensively engaged in plein air painting in Paris and Barbizon. However, he initially specialised in history painting in the tradition of Romanticism. However, this did not suit the collector's taste of the time, and so in 1856, he painted two scenes with fishermen in the style of French Realism. The two paintings were a great success with critics and the public. Israëls then specialised almost exclusively in depictions of fishermen. In 1871, he moved from Amsterdam to The Hague and began to turn his attention to printmaking and watercolours. In 1881, he met Max Liebermann and remained friends with him until the end of his life. Throughout his career, Israëls painted portraits of prominent personalities and colleagues. His son Isaac also became a painter.