Twee jonge vrouwen, over hun schouder kijkend 1886 - 1903

Editor: This charcoal drawing, "Two Young Women Looking over Their Shoulders," by Isaac Israels, made sometime between 1886 and 1903, has such a fleeting, informal quality to it. It feels like a stolen moment. How would you interpret this work within its historical context? Curator: It’s interesting you use the term “stolen moment.” That immediacy reflects a broader shift in the art world at the time, moving away from formal portraiture towards capturing everyday life, particularly in the context of rapidly changing urban environments. Israels, influenced by Impressionism, was interested in portraying modern life as it unfolded. Who was empowered to steal such a moment? And from whom? Editor: I see what you mean. It makes me consider who was given permission to have their likeness recorded. Are these women members of Israels's social circle? Or are they working class women he encountered and sketched? Curator: That’s exactly the right question to ask. Israels, as a member of the Hague School, was part of a broader movement towards realism and portraying different social classes, though his focus tended to be on a more bourgeois lifestyle. How do you see the composition contributing to this understanding? Editor: The unfinished lines and off-center framing, I think, make the subjects feel very alive and in motion. Almost as if the artist couldn't ask them to pose formally. I see a narrative forming through implication rather than detailed description. Curator: Precisely. The sketchy quality, combined with their gaze directed back at us, challenges the traditional power dynamic between the artist and the subject. It prompts us to consider their agency. Is it truly fleeting, or a deliberate, perhaps subtly defiant, turning of the head? Editor: It definitely shifts my perspective thinking about their agency! I initially viewed the artwork as spontaneous, but seeing how the artist was framing it through class and cultural perspectives makes it feel a lot more complicated. Curator: Indeed. That's the beauty of art history – uncovering those layers.