Portret van een onbekende man 1921 - 1922

This is Isaac Israels' "Portret van een onbekende man," at the Rijksmuseum, and it looks like it was made with graphite. Israels teases a likeness out of very few lines. The way he reduces the forms of the face to their essential angles and curves is super impressive to me. I love how the texture of the paper shines through, giving the portrait an unfinished, immediate quality. Take a look at the shading around the man's eyes, the way Israels captures the hollows and shadows with just a few quick strokes. It's like he's not just drawing what he sees, but also how he feels about his subject. Israels’ contemporary, the German artist Max Liebermann, also had a similarly loose, impressionistic approach to portraiture, capturing a sense of fleeting, momentary experience. These artists remind us that art is about exploring, experimenting, and embracing the unexpected.