Notities c. 1885 - 1902

Here we see 'Notities', an undated work by Jozef Israëls, seemingly scribbled into a cartridge sketchbook. Consider the simple marks, calculations, and inscriptions. These notations, though seemingly mundane, speak to a lineage stretching back to the earliest forms of writing and record-keeping. Think of ancient Sumerian clay tablets or medieval manuscripts filled with marginalia. These were all repositories of thought, attempts to capture fleeting ideas. Even the geometric forms of the label carry echoes of earlier symbolic systems. The rectangle, a symbol of order and structure, has been used across cultures to represent stability and containment. Perhaps unconsciously, these shapes tap into our primal need for organization and control amidst the chaos of existence. These scribbles, numbers, and ordered shapes, seemingly disconnected, remind us that symbols persist, evolve, and resurface, carrying traces of our collective past into the present.