Standing Female Nude 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this quick pencil drawing, maybe in the late 19th or early 20th century, on a page torn from a notebook. The figure is just a few lines, simple and straightforward. I’m thinking about his hand as it moved across the page, trying to capture the figure with just a few strokes, figuring out how to get the weight and balance right. Look at how he’s lightly sketched the face; it reminds me of some of Picasso’s line drawings. It feels so immediate. There is a sense of ease, of trusting the process. You can imagine him deciding where to put a line, then going with it, almost like a dance. It's about finding a rhythm, allowing the drawing to emerge from a place of instinct and intuition. That’s what makes art so interesting – it’s not just what you see, but how it makes you feel, and what it makes you think about. We all have our own interpretations, our own personal connections. Israels' sketch can connect us to the long history of artists making marks, figuring things out, and sharing their vision with the world.