Girl on a Donkey

By the 1890s Scheveningen, the beach just outside The Hague, had become a fashionable seaside resort, and one of its small pleasures was a donkey ride along the waterline for children. Israëls spent his summers there, renting near the seafront and drawn to the easy holiday life of the sand, and he painted these donkey rides again and again. He worked outdoors and quickly, in thin, airy strokes that leave the beach light and half finished, which suited a subject that was all movement anyway. The children usually wear the sailor hats that were the fashion for well-off families of the time, with a keeper walking behind to lead the animal. The resort ran on this kind of gentle amusement, and a ride cost little enough that it was an everyday sight along the tideline all summer.