In Passing Mother's Grave, how is the Reception discussed?
The painting is considered to be a milestone for 19th-century realism in the Netherlands. The art historian Sheila D. Muller has written that the artist accomplishes a "monumental treatment of the commonplace" and compared its impact with that of The Stone Breakers, an 1849 painting by the French realist painter Gustave Courbet. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated, "The works that came out of the Zandvoort experience are dark, somber and filled with feeling and compassion".
The art historian H.E. van Gelder called the painting a "genuinely new moment and the obvious beginning of the second period of Israëls's development", in which he moved away from his previous interests in German Romanticism and his work emulating the Renaissance and Baroque masters. The painting gained popularity and was widely reproduced in print. For instance, artists Johannes Heinrich Rennefeld and Willem Steelink Jr. made prints of the painting on three separate occasions, which were then published and distributed both in and beyond the Netherlands. While the work is generally considered among the most prominent and recognized paintings by Israëls, it has also met with criticism, particularly in regard to what some have seen as an overtly sentimental subject matter. Writing for Scribner's Magazine in 1912, Byron P. Stephenson, who also worked as an art critic for the New York Evening Post, noted that while some people considered the work to be "one of Israëls's finest works", he thought the sentiment of the painting "cheap and mawkish".Due to the work's popularity, the subject of Passing Mother's Grave has also inspired the design of a statue in honor of Israëls—The Jozef Israëls Monument—in his hometown of Groningen, which depicts the figures from this painting cast in bronze. The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh counted the painting among his favorites. He was fascinated by the painting and compared it with the work of French painter Eugène Delacroix, saying the painting was "Delacroix-like and superb" in its technique".The best-known version of the painting is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Another version of the painting is owned by The New Art Gallery Walsall in Walsall, England; at least one other version is known, sold to a private buyer in Vienna in 1907. The Stedelijk version of the painting is dated 1857. The version in the Walsall's collection is dated 1854 and titled The Widower (The Fisherman's Return). In 2008 another copy of the painting, titled Passing Mother's Tomb, sold at Lempertz auction house in Cologne, Germany. The painting was listed as measuring 94 cm (37 in) x 71.5 cm (28.1 in) and realized a sale price of €19,200.
Walsall Jozef Israëls Monument Cologne, Germany Renaissance Zandvoort Gustave Courbet Lempertz Jozef Israëls New York Evening Post Haaretz realist Walsall, England Fisherman Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Baroque Cologne German Romanticism Scribner's Magazine realism Groningen Willem Steelink Jr. Byron P. Stephenson Vincent van Gogh H.E. van Gelder The Stone Breakers The New Art Gallery Walsall Eugène Delacroix