Deel van een mannengezicht, mogelijk een zelfportret c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this drawing, "Part of a man's face, possibly a self-portrait", with graphite on paper. I can just picture Israels with his stick of graphite, finding the form gradually, building it up from the page. It's like he’s asking himself, "What does a face feel like? What does it mean to look?" You can feel the pressure of his hand, the way the lines cluster and dissolve. I imagine him squinting, tilting his head, trying to capture not just the appearance, but the essence of a person, maybe even himself. And that eye—doesn't it just grab you? There’s a real sense of inquiry there, a searching, both from the artist and the subject. It reminds me of other artists who used self-portraiture as a way to explore their own identities and the act of seeing itself. It's like they're all in conversation, these artists, across time and space.