Copyright: Rijks Museum: Open Domain
Isaac Israels made this drawing of a woman with a parasol on the beach, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, probably with charcoal or graphite on paper. It’s such a breezy, off-the-cuff sketch, you can almost feel the sun and the wind! Look at how Israels uses these quick, almost scribbled lines to capture the woman's form and the way the light hits her dress, and then notice how the right-hand side is much lighter and more diffused, like the air itself. There's a real sense of immediacy to this piece. It’s like Israels was trying to capture a fleeting moment, before the light changed or the woman moved. The use of line is so confident and economical, that I'm reminded of Degas and his pastels, or maybe even some of Manet's quick sketches. Like them, Israels is showing us that art isn't always about perfection, it's about capturing a feeling, an impression, a slice of life.
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