Donkey riding

Isaac Israëls painted Donkey Riding around 1900, capturing an instantly recognizable leisure activity of the Dutch seaside towns he frequented. Donkey rides for children were a fixture of beach culture at Scheveningen and other North Sea resorts, and Israëls — whose fluid, almost sketchlike manner suited ephemeral scenes of modern pleasure — returned to such subjects repeatedly. The Kunstmuseum Den Haag holds this work as part of a collection that charts his lifelong engagement with everyday Dutch social life. Where his father Jozef Israëls had depicted rural labour with sombre gravitas, the younger Israëls turned to sunlit recreation with an airy, spontaneous touch.

Israëls works with rapid, unhesitating strokes that capture movement and atmosphere over careful finish. The palette is sun-bleached — pale yellows, dusty greys, and sandy browns — with small accents of colour suggesting figures without fully detailing them.