Abklatsch van de krijttekening op blad 10 verso 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels created this transfer of a chalk drawing, sometime between when he was born in 1865 and when he died in 1934. Look at the hazy grey marks on the paper - like mist, or memories. I can imagine him, Israels, in the studio, chalk dust floating in the air, drawing, then pressing it onto another surface. What was he hoping to capture, or let go of? It feels like a ghostly twin of something else. Was he satisfied with the ghost, or did he need the original? It’s interesting to think about the labour here. I bet he made lots of drawings - you can see a few lines escaping on the top left, maybe he was testing it out. And it reminds me that every artist is in conversation with art history, trying things out, seeing what sticks. You can see so much of this conversation in the studio, even in the leftovers.