Gezicht op een gracht met brug, mogelijk de Prinsengracht te Amsterdam c. 1886 - 1903

This quick sketch of a canal with a bridge, possibly on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, was made by Isaac Israels sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The hasty marks in graphite capture a fleeting impression of the city. Amsterdam in this period was undergoing rapid modernization. The old merchant houses were now home to working-class families. We might think about this sketch in the context of artistic responses to urban change. Israels was part of a generation of artists who turned away from traditional academic subjects to paint scenes of everyday life. The Rijksmuseum itself, founded in 1800, was tasked with collecting and displaying a national art, a reflection of the country's values. How does a sketch like this fit into that institutional context? To fully understand this work, we would need to delve into the history of Amsterdam's urban development, as well as the changing role of art institutions and the market for art in the Netherlands.