Figuurstudie, mogelijk een man met pet 1875 - 1934

Here is a quick sketch of a figure, maybe a man with a cap, made by Isaac Israels. It’s all scribbled in pencil, with loose, searching lines that seem to capture a fleeting impression. I like to imagine Israels in the moment, quickly trying to capture the essence of this person before they move. The marks are so immediate, so present. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the paper, deciding what to include and what to leave out. Look at how the cap is formed with these dense, dark strokes, contrasting with the lighter, more tentative lines that define the rest of the figure. There is a feeling of movement, a sense that the drawing could shift and change at any moment. The way Israels uses line here reminds me of other sketch artists like Daumier or even some of the later gestural abstractionists. It’s all about finding a way to communicate feeling and form with minimal means. We can see artists in conversation across time through gestures like these.