Stadsgezicht met paard 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this cityscape with a horse using what looks like a graphite stick, and it gives me such a buzz. Look at how he's built up the image with these layers of energetic marks. The texture of the graphite on the paper is so present, it's like you can feel the rhythm of his hand moving across the surface. See the horse’s head. Notice how the darker, more defined lines give it weight and presence, while the rest of the horse seems to dissolve into the background. I see echoes of Daumier in this sketch, both in the subject matter and in the immediacy of the mark-making. It reminds me that art is an ongoing conversation, a dialogue across time and artists. Israels is responding to what he sees around him, but also to the art that has come before, filtering it through his own unique sensibility.