Staande danseres, in profiel c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a standing dancer, in profile, with graphite on paper. Look at the hatching and cross-hatching, those beautiful marks laid down one after another. It feels like a meditation, a patient build-up of tone and form. The texture of the paper really sings out, doesn't it? You can feel the tooth of the page through the varying pressure of the graphite. Notice how Israels uses the side of the pencil to create those broad, shaded areas, contrasting with the sharp, delicate lines that define the dancer’s form. See how the dancer’s head is built up from a mass of scribbled marks, somehow capturing the energy and movement of the figure. It's like a snapshot of a fleeting moment, caught in a web of lines. Israels reminds me of Degas, both capturing the behind-the-scenes lives of dancers, and using the subject to explore mark making. Art is all about a conversation, a dance of ideas across time, isn't it?