Kaptafel in een kleedkamer c. 1915s - 1925s

Curator: So, here we have Isaac Israels' "Kaptafel in een kleedkamer," which translates to "Dressing Table in a Dressing Room," likely created between 1915 and 1925. It’s currently held at the Rijksmuseum, and from the looks of it, crafted in pencil. Editor: It has such a fleeting quality. Like a memory glimpsed in a dusty mirror. The sketch feels unfinished, yet complete somehow, like catching a glimpse of backstage life – a chaotic, creative space, rendered almost dreamlike. Curator: Precisely! Israels had this remarkable talent for capturing immediacy. Look at how he uses line weight and density to define form, suggesting volume with such economy. Semiotically, the dressing table, adorned with those indistinct faces tacked to the wall, symbolizes not only the performative nature of identity but the deconstruction of it as well. We are observing a theater of gestures rather than anything explicitly theatrical. Editor: Those faces... yes! There’s a tension there, isn't there? Between the carefully constructed self – suggested by the makeup table – and the many potential faces, or roles, pinned up as inspiration. A world of endless transformations rendered on the same two dimensional plane as reality, that itself mirrors the artist's experience. Curator: Think about what it means to capture something in media like pencil that lends itself to easy erasure, but it captures so well a certain light – one is left to wonder what would endure and what would simply fade? He makes an art of sketching things into being or towards extinction. Editor: Right. Almost as if the subject itself is being styled or discarded—depending upon its relation to the overarching play, as the player shifts costumes to play a number of very different characters. All while mirroring Israels' own ability to shapeshift between painting, etching, and sketching—almost disappearing completely with each gesture or move... It is almost as if this sketch mirrors his very spirit! Curator: And on that thought, it strikes me, this seemingly casual sketch invites contemplation about our own constructions, don't you think? And what really *matters.* Editor: Agreed. Its incompleteness makes us actively fill in the gaps and to find a deeper more personal resonance! A quiet nod towards self awareness.