Notities 1834 - 1911

Curator: Gazing at this "Notities" by Jozef Israëls, circa 1834 to 1911, created with drawing, paper, and watercolor, it feels as though I've stumbled upon a private moment. A hushed whisper caught on paper. What's your initial take? Editor: It looks like a puzzle—fragments of handwriting across what seems like a faded instructional guide for a "Sketching Block in Case." It gives a powerful sensation of layered histories, almost like a palimpsest, but its emotional effect is cool. Curator: Israëls offers more than mere visual data; it is emotional archeology. Notice the faded blues and almost ghostly script layered with technical drawing notes – a visible conversation, like seeing layers of memory struggling for attention. It echoes the artistic sensibilities of Modernism, always seeking raw, unfiltered experience. Editor: I'm particularly intrigued by that label, “Geo. Rowney & Co., 64 Oxford Street". We should see it in its context. In the 19th century, London was the nexus of artistic innovation and the production of artist materials like these sketching blocks signaled a broadening market, reflecting changing social landscapes. This sketching block became the stage on which artists could write or draw their individual or artistic concerns. Curator: Ah, but does it tell of expansion? Perhaps it hints instead at enclosure, constraint... a mind processing experience, privately and intentionally hidden. The notations create their private universe against the manufactured uniformity. Israëls takes mundane objects and infuses them with lifeblood! Editor: That "lifeblood" exists in dialogue with broader institutional trends, you know. Rowney wasn’t just selling sketchbooks; they were shaping an art world, defining standards and distribution channels. How did those constraints also inform creativity by defining or enabling it? Curator: I love to view that duality. What a glorious tension emerges when a deeply feeling spirit engages an equally restrictive framework... Editor: In thinking more deeply about its public location at the Rijksmuseum, “Notities” takes on yet another angle to be considered. How do public spaces democratize—or appropriate—the intentions of artists such as Jozef Israëls. Curator: Ultimately it does offer an opportunity to pause. What a poignant reminder that the most valuable art lies within intimate contemplation.