Stoel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a chair with pencil on paper. You can see the sketchiness of it, the pure thought as it moves across the page. It’s art as a process of discovery. Check out how the pencil work captures the light. There are these dense, dark areas of cross-hatching, especially around the armrest, that give way to lighter, more ephemeral lines, giving the chair form, volume, and a place in space. It’s incredible how a few simple marks can evoke the feeling of a real, solid object. I love the way the seat is suggested with just a few curving lines, almost disappearing into the white of the paper. Israels, like Manet, was really interested in the everyday world around him. I think there’s something beautiful about elevating the mundane, about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Art invites us to look closer, to see the world with fresh eyes.