The Cottage Madonna

Josef Israëls Dutch, 1824-1911
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About the Artwork

Josef Israëls chronicled everyday routines of poor fishing communities to convey their inherent dignity. In The Cottage Madonna, he rendered a barefoot peasant woman feeding her child in a modest Dutch interior, equipped with a fireplace and a foot warmer. A chaplet cross hung against the plain mantel cloth alludes to a Christian image of Mary as a nurturing mother and symbolizes piety.
Israëls, who was known under the moniker “Dutch Millet,” based this composition partly on the print La Bouille (1861) by French artist Jean-François Millet. Millet popularized peasant subjects in European art of the second half of the nineteenth century and was highly respected in the artistic circles of The Hague.

The Cottage Madonna

ca. 1867

Josef Israëls

1824-1911

Dutch

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Oil on canvas

Unframed: 53 × 39 1/4 inches (134.6 × 99.7 cm) Framed: 69 3/8 × 56 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches, 76 pounds (176.2 × 143.5 × 14 cm, 34.5 kg)

Paintings

European Modern Art to 1970

Bequest of Nell Ford Torrey

59.117

Public Domain

Markings

Signed, lower left: Josef Israels

Provenance

1880s, collection of Alexander Young (London, England).
collection of Mrs. Harry N. Torrey [Nell Ford Torrey];
1959-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Memorial Catalogue of the French and Dutch Loan Collection. Exh. cat., Edinburgh International Exhibition. Edinburgh, 1886 [cat. published in 1888], p. 101, cat. 123 [lent by Alexander Young, London].

Gunsaulus, Frank Wakeley. Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Josef Israels. Exh. cat., Toledo Museum of Art. Toledo, 1912, cat. 241.

Gunsaulus, F. W. Joseph Israels: An Address delivered at the opening of the exhibition of Josep Israels' Paintings Toledo Museum of Art. 1912, (repr.).

Eisler, M. Jozef Israëls. London, The Studio, 1924, pl. XVI [no location cited].

De Haagse School. Hollandse Meesters van de 19de Eeuw. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Royal Academy, Haags Gemeentemuseum. Paris, London, The Hague, January 15-October 31, 1983, cat. 32, (repr.) [as ca. 1867].

Sutton, P. C. Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, 1986, pp. 89-90, (fig. 127), pl. 16.

Josef Israels. Exh. cat., Groninger Museum voor Stad en Lande. Groningen, 1999-2000, cat.

Stott, A. "The Dutch Dining Room in Turn-of-the-Century America," Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 37, no. 4 (2002): pp. 219-238, esp. p. 230, (fig. 9).

Jozef Israels -- A Heart's Desire. Exh. cat., Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum, University of Haifa. Haifa, p. 40 (fig. 37), p. 31* [sic] [in essay by Jochai Rosen, "Jozef Israels and Seventeenth Century Dutch Genre Painting;" not in exhibition].

Between Nature and Nationality: The Hague School in the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat., Center Art Gallery, Calvin College. Grand Rapids, October 5-November 17, 2007, pp. 27-31, 66, cat. 19, (fig. 6).

Holland op z'n mooist. Exh. cat., Dordechts Museum. Dordrecht, Netherlands, 2015, p. 14, no. 12.

Jonkman, Mayken, et al. Les Hollandais à Paris: Jongkind, Breitner, Van Gogh, Van Dongen, Mondrian 1840-1914. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum et al. Amsterdam, 2018, p.114 (fig. 101).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Josef Israëls, The Cottage Madonna, ca. 1867, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Nell Ford Torrey, 59.117.

The Cottage Madonna
The Cottage Madonna