Staande figuren, mogelijk acteurs c. 1915s - 1925s

Editor: This is "Standing Figures, possibly actors" by Isaac Israels, from somewhere between 1915 and 1925. It's a pencil drawing on paper, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. There's something kind of haunting about it... these figures just sketched so quickly, almost dissolving into the paper. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Ah, yes. It's as though Israels caught a fleeting glimpse, perhaps backstage at a theatre, a flurry of movement, and had to capture it *immediately*. Don't you feel the urgency in those quick lines? And notice how he layers the figures – some almost completely formed, others just hinted at. It reminds me of half-remembered dreams, faces fading at the edges. Editor: That’s a lovely image. It does have that dream-like quality, that feeling of grasping for something that's already slipping away. Is there any symbolism behind depicting actors this way? Curator: That’s a curious question! It might simply be that he was drawn to the everyday, behind-the-scenes lives of performers. Perhaps he was captivated by the performative nature of existence, that we are all actors on a stage in some way, rehearsing or decompressing. Who is really ever ‘themselves’ or simply taking on a character or part? Or it could be less lofty and more just trying out various ideas and angles as he works out how to place bodies in the scene. I'm more curious about the 'possible actors', did they even know he was looking at them? Were they actors who are known, recognisable figures to an audience from that period? These kinds of portraits in-passing always ask more questions than they answer for me. What about you, are you an actor, a character? Or 'yourself'? Editor: You know, I never thought about the idea of us all being performers, or being performed… Curator: That's art's mischief, isn't it? Stirring things up, getting us to look twice. Even at something that seems as simple as a sketch. Editor: Well, it definitely got me thinking today. I never expected such depth from something that appears so spontaneous. Curator: Spontaneity can be deceiving, dear! Sometimes the greatest insights come from the quickest observations. It can cut past everything extraneous, you know?