Ruiter 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch, Ruiter, on a lined page, maybe from a notebook. It’s so fleeting, like a thought captured in a hurry. I’m interested in the way artists use sketchbooks, it’s like they’re thinking out loud with a pencil. There's a real sense of energy in the marks that make up the rider and horse, a cluster of lines suggesting form and movement without defining anything too precisely. It’s more about capturing an impression, the essence of a rider on horseback. I keep thinking about the single vertical line next to the horse, is it a wall? A pole? Or just a doodle to balance the composition? It’s this kind of ambiguity that makes a sketch so alive. Like a haiku, it suggests more than it tells. You see this kind of approach too in Degas, that feeling of movement and light. It’s like art is one big conversation, a constant back and forth.