Portret van een onbekende zwarte man c. 1915s - 1925s

Here’s a drawing in graphite of an unknown Black man by Isaac Israels. I can imagine Israels in front of his subject, rapidly sketching, trying to capture a likeness, an essence. Look at the dynamism of the marks. Notice how the dense hatching of the jacket contrasts with the relative calm of the face. I wonder what he was thinking as he made this. Was he concerned with the gaze? The contrast of light and dark? The way the body fills the page? The sharp, diagonal lines that create the suit jacket almost read like pure abstraction. They remind me of some of Marlene Dumas’s drawings in their stark immediacy. All these artists are having a conversation, across time, across place. Drawing, like painting, allows for the creation of new meaning. It’s not about fixing something down, but opening something up.