Ru Israëls

A powerful abstract composition by the Rotterdam painter Rudolf 'Ru' Israëls (1912–1990), Wings of the Emerald Autumn. Working in a palette of deep earth tones – rust, ochre and warm gold – Israëls builds a layered pictorial space of troweled planes, incised lines and carefully worked texture. In the upper right, an emerald sphere forms the unmistakable focal point of the work: a cool, almost luminous counterpoint to the earthen ground below.

Israëls trained at the Lyceum and the Art Academy in Rotterdam before settling in The Hague, where he devoted himself fully to painting. He studied for several years under Willem van den Berg, then director of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His work is recorded in the database of the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History under number 41178.

Works by Israëls rarely appear on the market, and seldom at this scale. While he is chiefly known through works on paper, this is a fully realised painting of near-square format. It is presented in a gilt frame with a green inner edge that echoes the tones of the work itself. SRP: EUR 1.350,-