Standing Female Nude 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this standing female nude drawing, likely in his sketchbook, with a graphite pencil. I love the quickness of the mark-making here. It feels like he’s trying to capture not just the form, but also a sense of movement and life. Notice how the lines aren’t precious; they overlap and sometimes stray, as if he’s feeling his way around the subject. The paper itself, with its horizontal lines, becomes part of the drawing, adding a sense of structure and grounding. The way he suggests the curve of the hips with just a few strokes, or the angle of the leg with a single, confident line, is really beautiful. It reminds me of Matisse’s drawings, where he could convey so much with so little. Like with Matisse, it’s not about perfect representation, but about capturing the essence of the figure, the energy of the pose. It embraces ambiguity, suggesting more than it explicitly shows.