Portrait of the Architect Jan Wils 1930

Isaac Israels made this portrait of the architect Jan Wils with oil on canvas in 1930, and what strikes me is the way he's built up the image through these deliberate, visible marks. It’s like each brushstroke is a little decision, a building block in the process of creating a likeness. Look at the way Israels has handled the face – it's all these small, almost mosaic-like dabs of pinks and browns and even blues. The paint isn't blended smoothly; instead, you get a sense of the texture, the physicality of the medium. I love how you can almost see the push and pull of the brush. See the cool blue in the shadow under his eye? That little mark does so much work. It suggests depth, melancholy, maybe even a bit of the architect's personality. Israels reminds me a bit of Manet, in the way he captures a sitter with such directness and immediacy, embracing the ambiguity of paint. It's less about perfect representation and more about capturing a feeling.