Onderdeel van een koperen blaasinstrument 1875 - 1934

Curator: Looking at this sparse image, I feel almost as though I'm eavesdropping on a private thought. Editor: Precisely! This is listed as "Onderdeel van een koperen blaasinstrument," or "Part of a brass wind instrument," a sketch executed sometime between 1875 and 1934, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. It’s a pencil drawing by Isaac Israels. Curator: It has an undeniably modern feel, almost brutally simple in its linework. What’s most striking is how Israels reduces the object to just the barest suggestion of form and how little he actually includes in the frame. Editor: These kinds of preliminary sketches offer valuable insight into the artist's process, the stages of conceiving an idea and representing it. We get a sense of what the artist valued in the subject itself. Curator: And how it might relate to a tradition of musical representation. Were brass instruments typically objects of reverence, aspiration, or simply objects for still life? It feels unfinished and therefore incredibly raw and honest. Editor: Sketches like this circulated amongst artist networks and even found their way into the hands of collectors as standalone works in their own right. Think of the changing status of the sketch across the late 19th and early 20th centuries as part of a wider democratisation of the art world. Curator: I wonder, too, what personal associations the instrument held for Israels. Was music important to him or to his circle? Editor: Such personal objects often acquire greater significance when we see them through the eyes of an artist, reminding us that what seems mundane to one can be a source of inspiration for another. Curator: Absolutely. And perhaps this glimpse into Israels’ private visual language provides us with a greater appreciation for the symbolic potential inherent within everyday forms. Editor: It invites speculation and allows us to engage with the artistic process itself, emphasizing the intellectual labour inherent in visual creativity.