Trommelaarster 1878 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this small etching, called Trommelaarster, sometime in his life, and it now lives in the Rijksmuseum. Israels wasn’t one for wasting marks. Every line here has to work hard. Look how the artist uses line, sometimes so dense and sometimes so sparse, to give the impression of a huge, moving crowd. From the front the work pulls you back through the center of the picture, but up close the surface is broken up by these little lines making each individual character. The horse towards the front is rendered with such detail, especially in the face and legs, that it pulls you in. Israels, like Degas, was fascinated by everyday movement, especially the movement of women and the working class. I wonder what he might have made of photography? Like Degas, too, Israels shows how the smallest, simplest, gestures can be elevated.