Abklatsch van de tekening op blad 13 recto 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch on paper, probably in a book, and in it he captured the barest essence of a figure wearing a hat. It’s an ‘Abklatsch’, meaning that it’s a kind of reverse image, a transfer. The sparse marks, the kind of ‘ghostly’ image, makes me think about the artist, maybe in a cafe, quickly rendering a person in the vicinity. I can almost see him there, quickly trying to find a sense of character with the minimum amount of marks. There is something quite beautiful in the simplicity and directness. Artists are constantly in conversation with one another, and this reminds me a bit of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, who were also interested in the everyday and the fleeting glimpses of modern life. Israels and these artists found in painting an immediate form of expression, embracing uncertainty and allowing for multiple readings of the same image.