Portret van een onbekende man met bril 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels sketched this portrait of an unknown man with a pencil on paper. The whole thing is rendered in such a light touch! The guy's face emerges gently, those soft pencil marks creating the shape of his head, and the almost comical glasses perched on his nose. You can see how Israels is thinking aloud with his pencil, feeling out the forms, the light and shadow, like a sculptor might work with clay. Was he thinking about Rembrandt or Hals, those other Dutch masters of portraiture? Maybe. I can imagine him quickly capturing the essence of his sitter, not trying to nail every detail, but getting something truer, something more fleeting. It's like a quick conversation, a shared moment captured in a web of graphite. And it reminds you that art-making is an ongoing exchange. It's not about perfection, it's about the energy and the feeling that you put into it.