Isaac Israels
"Dancer in the Scala theatre, The Hague"
ISAAC ISRAELS
Amsterdam 1865-1934 Den Haag
DANCER IN THE SCALA THEATRE, DEN HAAG
Oil on canvas
90 x 123 cm.
Signed: lower right ‘Isaac Israels’
Provenance: Collection M.L. Maas, Rotterdam; Collection P. Brandt 1970, no. 326.
At the theatre, the actress on the stage is dressed in a yellow robe and wears a crown on her head. Two servants are holding up her long green veil. On the extreme left in the background the boxes with playgoers are visible. The revue girls may have been painted on one of the occasions that Israels sat backstage at the Scala Theatre in the Wagenstraat in Den Haag. Israels was fond of painting backstage, creating studies of (although unwilling to pose) the American revue star Josephine Baker or in the lobby, painting the audience.