_Joseph Israels_ (Dutch: 1824-1911). _See 2713._
This celebrated picture--one by which the master often said he would
like to be judged--created a great sensation at the International
Exhibition of 1862. It was, said one critic, the most moving picture in
the exhibition; before it, said another, crowds daily linger. The storm
has passed, the waves have subsided, the greyish-black thunderclouds
have vanished, and greenish, pallid sky smiles upon the earth once
more. But upon the waves a shattered boat still rocks, and men and
women and children have come down to see what victim may have been
cast up by the tide--"For men must work, and women must weep, Though
storms be sudden, and waters deep, And the harbour bar be moaning."
Two fishermen reverently bear home the body of their dead comrade. His
disconsolate wife and two awestruck children walk in front, and his
old mother beside him. A man with a boat-hook, a woman pointing to the
wreck on the reef, and others follow the procession, in the rear of
which is the pathetic figure of a dog.