Drie staande vrouwelijke naakten 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of three standing female nudes, with a stick of graphite, probably while observing a life drawing class. The marks are tentative, searching, like he's feeling around for the edges of the forms. I love the way the graphite sits on the paper, almost floating, building up layers of tone with these rapid, scribbled lines. You can see how he's grappling with the weight and volume of the bodies, trying to nail down the pose with these fleeting gestures. Look at the way he's suggested the shading on the figure to the right, those dark, emphatic strokes that give a sense of three-dimensionality. Israels reminds me of Degas, especially his pastels of dancers, capturing the energy and movement of the body in space with this incredible economy of line. Both artists have this ability to make the process visible, leaving traces of their thinking and feeling on the surface of the work. The beauty is in the searching, not necessarily the finding.