The Day before Parting

In May 1862 London opened its International Exhibition in South Kensington, the successor to the Great Exhibition of 1851, and this canvas went there from the Netherlands. That same year it also won a gold medal in Rotterdam. Some 40 years later Israëls admitted that it was the picture that had made his reputation.

The title says what has happened. A fisherman has died, and tomorrow he will be buried. His widow sits by the cold hearth with her head in her hand, and her small daughter, barefoot on the floor beside her, looks across at the coffin in the dark part of the room, where a single candle burns. The only strong light falls on the wall above mother and child.