Zittende en staande figuren, mogelijk artiesten op het toneel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this pencil sketch called "Zittende en staande figuren, mogelijk artiesten op het toneel" sometime in his life. Look at how he quickly suggests the figures. Notice that heavy scribbled section in the upper left? That's where he's laid down some serious graphite, building up tone with a kind of furious energy. The marks are raw and immediate, like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment. It's a glimpse into his process, that physicality of dragging the pencil across paper. Then he thins it out on the other side; almost as if light is hitting the figures from an unseen source. It reminds me a bit of Degas, someone else who loved to catch those behind-the-scenes moments. But Israels has his own way of doing it, a kind of loose, gestural shorthand that's all his own. There's a real freedom in the ambiguity. It's like he's saying, "Here's a suggestion, now you fill in the blanks."