Abklatsch van een krijttekening 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Abklatsch van een krijttekening, with chalk, and it looks like he smudged it, maybe even transferred it, to get the image that you see here. I wonder what he was thinking while he was rubbing that chalk around? The texture of the paper is soft, and the chalk has a real looseness about it. It’s like he’s building up an atmosphere or a feeling, rather than depicting anything specific. I can almost feel the way his hand moved across the paper, building up those marks, erasing them, and then building them up again. It reminds me a little of Cy Twombly's drawings, but with a softer, more introspective feel. It's like Israels is trying to capture a fleeting moment, a whisper of an idea. And in a way, all art is about that conversation, that reaching out across time and space to connect with other artists, other viewers. It’s a beautiful thing, this messy, imperfect, and totally human act of making art.