Man met snor 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a man with a moustache with a stick of graphite, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. You can tell by the scratchy quality of the line that it was made in a flurry. What was he thinking when he made this? Was he in a bar? Did he see this guy from afar, lean over, and capture him quickly in his sketchbook? The background is alive with scribbles, but the portrait itself is sparse and economical. Look at the way he’s only implied the planes of the man’s jacket. It reminds me a little of Van Gogh’s quick portraits, but it also has a bit of Manet’s confident sketchiness. You get the impression that Israels wasn’t striving for accuracy; he was simply interested in the gesture of the figure, the way the light hit his face. He wasn’t trying to tell us everything, but he was definitely trying to tell us something. And in that spirit, it’s up to us to meet him halfway.