Annotaties 1875 - 1934

This is Annotaties by Isaac Israels, made with pencil on paper, and held at the Rijksmuseum. It reminds me of my own studio, which is usually covered in scrawls and notes. This piece is a blank canvas, yet it also isn't. The annotations that we can see on the page aren’t a distraction from the art, but rather are part of its essence, offering a peek into the artist's mind, the genesis of creation. Look at the texture of the paper. Its surface seems untouched, smooth, yet marked with these fleeting thoughts. The writing, in a dark, almost secretive tone, appears hurried, spontaneous. I can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the page. It's like a conversation, a dialogue between the artist and the work itself. The piece has a kinship to Cy Twombly, who also embraced the beauty of the incomplete, the imperfect, the raw expression of thought. And this feels true to the nature of art itself.