Portret van een man, mogelijk burgemeester Jacob Patijn c. 1915s - 1925s

This is Isaac Israels' sketch of a man, possibly Mayor Jacob Patijn, made with pencil on paper. The beauty of a sketch lies in its immediacy; it's a direct record of the artist's thought process. Look at the way Israels uses line. See how the form is built up with tentative strokes, capturing not just the likeness of a man, but also a sense of movement. The lines are thin and delicate, almost like whispers on the page. There's something so raw and vulnerable about a sketch. The artist hasn't committed to a final version; instead, it's more like a conversation. It reminds me a little of Degas' drawings, particularly his studies of dancers, where you can feel the artist searching for the right form and gesture. Ultimately, art is an act of searching, and sometimes it’s the searching itself that’s most interesting.