Figuurstudies c. 1915s - 1925s

Curator: Immediately, there is such a sense of lightness to these sketched figures. Editor: Indeed. What we have here is “Figuurstudies”, or Figure Studies, by Isaac Israels, created sometime between 1915 and 1925. This piece, housed right here at the Rijksmuseum, employs the simplest of materials – pencil on paper. Curator: It's intriguing how Israels captured these figures. What socio-cultural factors may have shaped this artistic output and its focus on the depiction of everyday individuals? Were these figures derived from the social sphere surrounding him? Editor: The rapid, almost fleeting lines are evocative of Impressionism; yet this isn’t about light as much as form, isn’t it? The essence of bodies, almost. Stripped down, reduced. Curator: Reduction perhaps reflective of societal upheaval, perhaps the bare economic minimum available to these depicted peoples. The medium becomes less about aesthetic presentation, and more about documentary record. Editor: I appreciate your viewpoint, and I understand where you are coming from, but the very visible marks of the pencil…the texture achieved speaks to an intention, an exploration of artistic language as much as anything else. It calls into question how our act of viewing itself gives them form. Curator: But what kind of social infrastructure or commission led to the production of such images? Who was meant to own them, and what value did they hold as depictions of working class subjects? Editor: Perhaps ownership isn't as crucial here; perhaps the figures shown are a mirror to our expectations as viewers of what and how they must be depicted and then interpreted to hold significance within the framework you impose on them? Curator: Perhaps so, but let us think of it also as documentation, not in that framework only, but as something born from class awareness of its own subject matter within an uneven playing field of resources. Editor: Very good point, that speaks to a possible exchange here. Curator: Yes, thank you. Editor: The experience has broadened my views considerably!