Drie vrouwen met een arm in de lucht 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Drie vrouwen met een arm in de lucht, with pencil on paper. Look at these scratchy, searching lines, like a map of somebody's nervous system, or the track of a thought as it zips through the brain! Israels isn't trying to give us a perfect picture. Instead, it’s as if we’re seeing the energy of the artist's hand as he tries to catch the quickness of life. I am drawn to the cluster of vertical strokes on the left, what are they? A door? Figures obscured? The whole composition feels so immediate, like a note jotted down in a hurry, full of movement and life. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles. But where Twombly is all poetic abstraction, Israels is always hinting at something real, something he saw and had to capture, quick! Drawings like these remind me that art isn’t just about making pretty pictures, it’s about thinking and feeling and seeing, and then letting your hand try to keep up.