Twee studies van een mannenhoofd met hoofddeksel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made these two studies of a man's head with a hat using pencil on paper. It’s so nice when you see a page of studies like this. You can imagine him, rapidly trying to capture the character of his sitter. Was the man in front of him tired, or a little bit cross? Did Israels know him, or did he pick him out of a crowd? The man’s got a furrowed brow, so I imagine Israels was trying to capture something of his inner life. You can see he’s worked over the lines of the nose, trying to get it just right. Israels was part of a group of artists known as the Amsterdam Impressionists, who were interested in capturing fleeting moments of everyday life. I like to think about how artists are constantly in conversation with one another, building on each other’s ideas and pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. For me, this drawing is about how uncertainty allows for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.