Portret van Sebald Rudolf Steinmetz 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels dashed off this portrait of Sebald Rudolf Steinmetz with graphite on paper. Look how the artist's hand zips and loops and darts around the page. I get the sense of Isaac in a fever, trying to get down every little twitch of the eye. It's amazing how economical the lines are, right? Like, the bare minimum needed to convey a likeness, a mood, a presence. I wonder what they were talking about while Isaac was drawing? Was Steinmetz restless, fidgeting in his seat? Or maybe Isaac just had ants in his pants! It reminds me that drawing and painting is kind of like dancing. Like a little back-and-forth between your eye, your hand, and the subject. Each mark on the page is a record of that encounter, a trace of that energy. And when you look at it, you can feel it too. You're participating in that dance, across time, in your own way.