Waiting.

Realist painter Josef Israels (1824-1911) was an innovative force in the Dutch art world and has been compared stylistically to Rembrandt and thematically to Millet. Like Rembrandt, Israels’ work generally features darker colors and broader brush strokes. Also, in subject, like Rembrandt and contemporary Jean Francois Millet, Israels painted subjects of lower social and economic ranks of society. Set in the Dutch coastal town of Katwijk, this painting, a variant of the Children of the Sea - minus one child - emotes the plight of the wife and mother awaiting the return of her fisheman husband - a classic literary theme. See D. Dekkers, Jozef Israels (2000) p. 141.