Staande vrouw met de handen in de zij 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this ink sketch of a standing woman with her hands on her hips, sometime between 1880 and 1934. The lines here are so spare, so economical. It’s like he's trying to capture just the essence of a pose. Looking at the way he’s described her torso, it seems he’s felt her weight and balance, the way clothes hang on a body, everything. It’s all there in just a few marks. This sketch makes me think about how much information our brains can take in with just the smallest visual clues. It reminds me a little of Matisse's line drawings, though maybe with a bit more of a sense of volume. Both artists share this amazing ability to suggest so much with so little, to distill the figure down to its most essential forms. It’s like a visual shorthand, and it’s totally captivating.