Reclining Female Nude 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of a reclining nude, with pencil on paper. What strikes me is the confidence in the marks. There's a real sense of the body being worked out, felt through the hand, as he goes. The drawing feels immediate, like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment, focusing on the line, how it defines and suggests form. The surface is pretty raw, you can see all the artist's workings, the places he's gone over lines to find the right contour. Israels uses a combination of short, sketchy lines and longer, more fluid strokes to describe the figure. Look at the way he's rendered the shadows around her body, layering the pencil to create depth and volume, especially around her hip. It’s interesting how the marks under the body become more like chaotic scribbles, as if the focus fades the further we get from her face. It makes me think of Degas, another artist who was really interested in capturing fleeting moments and the human form. Ultimately, it's about the pleasure of looking and the beauty of the human form captured in a very direct way.