Man met baard en twee mannen in wapenrusting 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a man with a beard and two men in armour with what looks like charcoal or conte crayon. I can imagine Israels standing there, quickly, urgently sketching what he sees. The marks are dashed, scribbled, and the tones range from light grey to dense black. The image emerges, shifting through trial, error, and intuition, as he brings the scene into being. I really feel him looking, deciding, and feeling the heft of the crayon in his hand. There's a certain kinship between all artists, I think, no matter when they lived. We all deal with the same problems of representation, of making a mark, of wrestling something from nothing. And by looking at this, I can see the choices he made, and that helps me think about my own. It’s all one big conversation.