Trommelaarster 1878 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this etching of a drummer girl sometime during his career. Look at how he’s built up the image with these quick, scratchy lines—they swarm around the figure, giving her a sense of movement and life. You can almost feel him working, can't you? Trying to capture something fleeting. I bet he was trying to nail that balance between precision and spontaneity, you know, like "how do I make this look effortless, even though it’s totally worked over?" He probably kept going over the plate again and again, adding more lines, taking some away, until he got it just right. The way he’s rendered the drum, for instance, it’s like a little world in itself. He has really thought about those tonal variations and how each mark suggests where the light is hitting. Artists like Israels are always in conversation with each other, riffing on ideas, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. And that's the beauty of painting, right? It's never really finished.