Bos met zittende tekenaar 1834 - 1911

Editor: Here we have Jozef Israëls' pencil drawing, "Bos met zittende tekenaar," placing us right there, in the woods, with, well, another artist! It's giving me major art-inception vibes. The trees feel both close and distant with those quick lines. What jumps out at you? Curator: It whispers, doesn't it? Like a secret sketch in a forgotten sketchbook. The real genius here, I think, is the honesty. Israëls wasn't trying to impress anyone with grand vistas. He just plonked himself down, like the chap in the image, and captured the quiet. The light filtering through those trees... ever tried sketching that? Pure poetry, almost melancholic. It is kind of like a selfie of the soul, isn’t it? Ever get that urge to draw the world? Editor: I definitely understand the appeal! There is such a raw quality to sketches. Do you think it’s necessarily melancholic? Perhaps there is simply observation and process occurring? Curator: Observation, certainly. The process? Definitely. But melancholia often accompanies a keen observation of the world. Think of the light fading, the fleeting beauty... plus, Jozef was Dutch! Maybe that is just a shortcut on my part, an instant and deeply biased attribution of the Dutch ethos for reflection and maybe a touch of gloom? What do you see in the marks and pressure on the page? Editor: Well, to me, those quick marks highlight transience of the setting - as though the light could change or the wind could pick up at any moment. Now that you mention it, that awareness definitely tugs on the heartstrings! I’m suddenly feeling all sorts of things about Dutch art… Curator: Exactly! It’s the ghost of a feeling, caught on paper. Wonderful how a simple sketch can hold so much. I think both artists here captured far more than just the forest!