Vrouw met hoed op een terras 1875 - 1934

This is a sketch by Isaac Israels, made without a date, but we get the sense he wanted to catch a moment, just like that. He uses these hatching marks, close together, so it looks like the whole scene is shimmering, almost vibrating. I love the way the surface is built up with these energetic lines, a kind of restless, searching quality. Look how the shadow under the table is just a mess of scribbles, but somehow it reads as solid. The hat itself is barely there, just a few curves, but you know it's a hat! It’s all about the process of looking, feeling, and trying to grab something before it disappears. You can almost hear him thinking, like a visual diary. There's something of Degas in this approach, the way he captures fleeting moments. It reminds me that art is an ongoing conversation, full of questions.