Drie vrouwen op een gracht, mogelijk de Prinsengracht te Amsterdam 1886 - 1903

This is Isaac Israels’s sketch made with pencil on paper, entitled 'Three Women on a Canal, possibly the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam'. The composition is divided almost symmetrically, with a stark contrast between the detailed left side and the empty right side. The left side is densely packed with lines, where we can see the canal and the women. The horizontal lines create a sense of flatness, a deliberate choice to reject traditional perspective, pushing against conventional artistic representation. On the other side, the negative space is interrupted by a few abstract shapes; these elements seem to float freely, unburdened by the representational demands. Israels destabilizes the viewer’s expectations by combining detailed figures with near abstraction. This challenges fixed notions of what a drawing should be and asks us to reconsider how meaning is constructed through both presence and absence. The sketch becomes a site of experimentation where traditional representation meets modern abstraction, reflecting broader philosophical concerns about perception and representation.