Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 41 1875 - 1934

This ‘Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 41’ was made by Isaac Israels; it’s almost like a ghost, a memory, on paper. The palette is barely there: just a whisper of grey against the white ground. Look at the lower left corner: it’s like a storm cloud of tiny marks, a kind of controlled chaos. The texture gives it away as a rubbing, ‘abklatsch’ means ‘impression’ in German, like a transfer, which seems fitting, as if the image has been lifted from another place. There’s a strange beauty in its fragility; it reminds me of Twombly's smudgy surfaces, a world away from clean edges and bold statements. It’s like Israels is reminding us that art doesn't always have to shout; sometimes, it can murmur. It's in these quiet gestures that we find something profound, a reminder that art is as much about process as it is about the final product.