Schetsboek XX met 26 bladen 1875 - 1934

This sketchbook, with 26 pages, was made by Isaac Israels sometime in his life using paper and probably something to bind it together. It's really just the cover we're seeing, a dark, textured plane hinting at the possibilities within. The cover has a kind of marbled effect, a dance of dark reds and blacks that reminds me of old book bindings or even geological formations, like looking at a piece of granite. It’s flat, of course, but the density of the pattern gives it depth, like there's something hidden just beneath the surface. You can almost feel the history embedded in those little marks, the way they bleed into each other. I wonder if the patterns are accidents or intentional choices by the artist. Looking at this, I think about other artists who treated the surface of things as a ground for something else, like Cy Twombly. This sketchbook, though, is a more private affair. The texture isn't about bravado but about the quiet, persistent rhythm of thought. It is a reminder that art is just as much about what we don't see as what we do.