Artieste maakt zichzelf op in een kleedkamer c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this drawing of an artist putting on their makeup in a dressing room, probably on paper with graphite. It’s about process, about performance, and about the gaze, right? The texture of the drawing is light, sketchy, but the cross-hatching feels very decisive. There’s an intimacy in these lines, a sense of immediacy. Look at how the face is rendered with just a few marks, yet it conveys so much. The lines are more than just descriptive, they’re expressive. The scratchiness around the hair contrasts with the smooth lines of the dressing table and the marks really define the space. It makes me think of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, how they looked at performers, not in a glamorous way, but capturing something in-between, in a moment of transformation.