Portret van een onbekende vrouw met hoed c. 1919

Isaac Israels made this portrait of an unknown woman with a hat using a pencil. The sketch is very quick, very light, so much so it feels as if it might disappear right off the page. And maybe that’s the point: this is a moment caught in time, a flicker of recognition. I love the way he’s used line here, suggesting form and shadow with a kind of shorthand. Look at the eyes, for example. They’re just two small circles, but they convey so much. And then there’s the hat, this flurry of lines that somehow manages to describe both its shape and its texture. It’s all about suggestion rather than description, isn't it? This piece reminds me of the work of Manet, another artist who was interested in capturing fleeting moments. Both artists seem to be saying that art is not about perfection or accuracy, but about capturing something of the lived experience. Something that is always changing, always in flux.