Vrouwelijk naakt in kaarshouding c. 1915s - 1925s

This is a pencil drawing of a female nude, made by Isaac Israels, it is located in the Rijksmuseum. Look at the marks Israels made, almost like scribbles, but they create a sense of form. Drawing is so much about a process, a way of thinking through seeing. The pencil lines here aren’t precious; they’re searching, re-finding the edge of the figure. The way Israels uses the pencil, you can almost feel the pressure he applied, light and soft in some areas, darker where he wanted to suggest shadow and volume. The hatch marks are close together; that soft, smudgy texture gives the figure weight, but also a vulnerability. Seeing this reminds me of the speed of Elizabeth Peyton’s drawings; there is a similar sense of seeing the artist thinking as they make marks. Art is an ongoing conversation, and it’s always changing.