Kozakkenkoor 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this lithograph titled Kozakkenkoor, or Cossack Choir, with crayon, on paper. The first thing I see are these bold, dark strokes. The marks are so immediate, like he’s trying to capture a fleeting moment, a burst of sound. I love art that feels urgent. The texture is all in the strokes. You can almost feel the grit of the crayon on the paper, a kind of raw energy, and even though it's a simple black and white, there’s a whole range of tones created by the density of the marks. Look at the way he suggests the faces in the crowd, just a few quick lines and smudges. It’s not about detail, it's about the overall feeling of the scene. This reminds me a bit of Daumier, actually, with his gritty depictions of urban life, but Israels has his own way of capturing the pulse of the moment, that raw energy. It is a reminder that art isn’t about perfection.