Abklatsch van de krijttekening op blad 8 recto c. 1886 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this chalk drawing, ‘Abklatsch van de krijttekening op blad 8 recto’ – which roughly translates as ‘counter-proof of the chalk drawing on page 8’ – sometime between 1865 and 1934. And, boy, is it a drawing about process! I find it so interesting that this is a transfer – a kind of echo of another drawing. It's like Israels is showing us the ghost in the machine, the residue of a creative act. The smudgy, soft quality of the chalk gives it a dreamy, almost ethereal feel. It’s like looking at something through a fogged-up window. Check out the way the lines break apart, how the forms are suggested rather than defined. There’s a looseness, a willingness to let the medium do its thing. It reminds me a little of Odilon Redon’s pastels – that same embrace of the atmospheric, the suggestive, the not-quite-there. It’s a reminder that art isn’t just about capturing a likeness; it’s about capturing a feeling.