..on my travels, for example, abroad,. .I see things that attract me, in the works of others, - which impress me. That's what you reflect upon at tim… - Jozef Israëls

..when I heard that he would come next day [his regular art-seller Buffa, who had sent him a large frame including canvas because Israel had promised him a large painting], I put the canvas on an easel, eager to see for myself what would occur, I did already a sketch of something after nature what would just fit very well in that [large] size, but the most significant element was still wanting.. ..the lines of the sketch indicated a woman, walking along the road.. .I thought however, once more another woman with a child? I already had two on the plate [waiting already in the studio, probably], it was a road along a canal during the Evening hour and a meadow, enclose by a small tree. I then put the figures in it but I didn't like the result. That moment the Rotterdam' writer Brusse walked in with me.. ..he was looking attentive how I repainted the woman into a man on horseback.. .,but soon already I didn't like that either and I repainted it into an image of two Lovers. Mr. Brusse and I saw many beautiful things in it, although one could hardly see what was really presented. In the meantime I got teased by turmoil about this composition, and during my walk next morning I thought it was too sentimental, that Evening (hour) or those Lovers.. .I then imagined myself an old gentleman walking back home at Evening hour, I painted that image on the canvas and added a few tiny trees, and that was it. his painting 'Levens-avond / Evening of Life', 1904 ] (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)

version in original Dutch (citaat van Jozef Israëls in Nederlands): Zooals de schilderijen 'de Nachtwacht' en 'de Staalmeesters' nu [1894, in het Rijksmuseum] hangen is het voor ieder duidelijk, dat men gezocht, ja geknoeid heeft om die schilderijen te laten doen wat zij kunnen. Maar ziet U, men heeft het niet gevonden, eenig en alleen omdat men het museum hooger stelde dan de schilderijen. Want zooals ik bij de allereerste opening van 't Rijksmuseum gezegd heb, aan iedereen die het hooren wilde: in dit lokaal, waar de Nachtwacht nu staat, kan hij nooit tot zijn recht komen.. .. Er moet voor de 'Nachtwacht' en voor de 'Staalmeesters' ieder een apart vertrek gebouwd worden.. ..staand licht en de schilderijen op een schildersezel of standaard daar achter, niet tegen den muur opgehangen.. ..Nog even wil ik hier bijvoegen, dat mijn eigen atelier van afmeting en verlichting bijzonder als model .. ..zou kunnen dienen.

..it [his watercolor 'New Flower' ['Het Bloempje', 1880] is one of those pictures, I did my best to finish it highly, as the story is nice and pleasant [where] other pictures may be more necessarily rough or strong being paint in an other mood. But this new flower needed a tender hand and conspicuous attention for details.