Reclining Female Nude 1875 - 1934

This is a drawing called ‘Reclining Female Nude’ by Isaac Israels, which lives at the Rijksmuseum. Just looking at this image, you can see the artist thinking, line by line, adjusting and correcting—a real back-and-forth process. I can imagine Israels in the studio, maybe he's walking back and forth, squinting, trying to capture the light and form of the model. The energy in those lines! They remind me of Degas' dancers or even some of Matisse’s looser sketches, where it feels like the artist is feeling around for the form, letting the line do the work of discovery. Notice the way the shading is used to give weight and volume to the figure, especially in the torso and legs. It’s like he’s building the figure from the inside out. There's a conversation happening across time, artists looking and responding to each other, picking up the thread of inquiry.