Shepherd Watching His Flock

Like his Dutch compatriot Vincent van Gogh, Jozef Israëls was greatly influenced by Millet’s peasant imagery. In the early 1850s Israëls visited the town of Barbizon in France, where Millet and other landscapists had settled, but it was not until 1870 or so that he began etching. It is only then that rustic scenes start to appear regularly in his work. This etching, published in both England and the Netherlands, is a luxurious collector’s object which includes a bonus remarque, or small marginal image, of a farmhouse.