Gezicht, in profiel 1875 - 1934

This drawing of a face in profile was made by Isaac Israels, but we don’t know exactly when, or even with what materials. It’s less about a finished image, and more about the process of looking; the initial stages of committing something to paper. See how the lines are both tentative and exploratory, yet confident? There are marks that seem to imply the movement of the hand, a kind of shorthand for the form. The texture is a bit smudgy, like he may have used charcoal, and there is some blurring, that might imply the pressure of the artist’s hand at work. Look at the top left corner of the head. The lines move down into the neck, but they almost describe a hand holding something. There's a real sense of immediacy, like the artist was trying to capture something fleeting. It reminds me of the drawings of Paula Rego in the way it seems to be testing out different ways of seeing. Art isn't just about perfect representations; it's about how we perceive and interpret the world around us.