Schetsboek XXVIII met 17 bladen 1875 - 1934

This sketchbook with seventeen pages was created by Isaac Israels, we don't know when. The binding has a gorgeous olive green color, like something you’d find in nature – a stone, or moss, maybe. I love that the cover itself becomes a ground, a place for marks. Someone has inscribed something on it, maybe the artist themselves, in a delicate cursive that sits on the surface like a thought. The texture looks matte, almost velvety, which gives it a really tactile quality. I imagine holding it in my hands, feeling the slight resistance of the fabric. It makes you think about the kind of journey this object has been on. It makes me wonder what secrets these pages hold, the starts and stops, the gestures and marks that add up to something – a way of seeing. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's sketchbooks - this quiet appreciation of the act of mark-making, an ongoing conversation between the artist, the world, and the page. It's a reminder that art is as much about the process as it is about the final product.