Briefkaart aan Pieter Haverkorn van Rijsewijk Possibly 1906

This Briefkaart, or postcard, by Jozef Israëls from 1905, uses ink on paper, and right away, it strikes me how raw and immediate the gesture is. The message and address are hastily scribbled. The material of this work is so simple; it’s just a card, some ink, a stamp, and a message that had to reach its destination. The ink is transparent, the paper thin, and the marks are unrestrained. I can almost feel the pressure of Israëls’ hand as he’s writing, the nib scratching against the paper. Look at the flourish of the address “Rotterdam” in the bottom right. This casual loop gives the whole image a sense of movement and speed. Israëls was known for his genre scenes of Dutch peasant life, and you can see a similar focus on everyday life here. Like the Impressionists, Israëls finds beauty in the mundane. Think also of someone like Cy Twombly, who used writing and drawing to create abstract compositions that blurred the lines between language and art. Here, the act of writing becomes an art form. It's not so much what is being said, but how it's being said, the energy and urgency of the message that captivates us.