Figuurstudies 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, called 'Figuurstudies', with pencil on paper, and it’s now in the Rijksmuseum. Israels is feeling his way here; you can see it in the repeated strokes. There is a cluster of hatching in the upper half of the work, which darkens this portion of the composition and brings visual weight to the top of the image. The drawing has a tentative, searching quality. You can sense the artist trying to capture a fleeting impression, a gesture or a pose, without getting bogged down in details. Notice how the lines are thin and wiry, almost like a nervous system laid bare. Look at the lower half of the sheet: the faint, looping lines suggest figures in motion. This type of mark-making makes me think of Cy Twombly's sketches, where the act of drawing becomes a kind of dance. Israels' work reminds us that art is not just about the finished product, but about the process of seeing, feeling, and thinking.