Staande vrouw in oosterse kleding 1887 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of a standing woman in oriental clothing with crayon, charcoal, and pastel. Look at the way he’s built up the image, line by line, almost like a wireframe. It feels like a process of searching, a constant re-evaluation of form. There’s a lovely tension between the flatness of the paper and the implied depth of the figure. The colours are muted, but there’s a real vibrancy in the way he’s layered the different tones. See the red underneath the yellow, how it gives warmth to the ground? The marks are light, almost feathery. Israels doesn't seem interested in the specifics of the figure so much as the process of rendering a body in space. I'm drawn to the dark charcoal lines around her face and the yellow headscarf. It’s like she emerges out of the chromatic fog. It puts me in mind of Vuillard, another artist who was interested in this kind of intimate, interior scene. Both artists invite us to see the world as a place of constant flux, of fleeting impressions.