Vrouw, in profiel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this watercolour, ‘Vrouw, in profiel’ with brown washes that bleed and flow across the page like memories. The painting seems to have come into being through a kind of trial and error – a shifting and emerging through intuition. I sympathize with Isaac here. I imagine him dabbing at the paper, lost in thought, trying to capture something fleeting. The paint is thin, almost transparent, and the surface of the paper is visible underneath, like skin. Look at how the paint pools and drips, creating these soft, organic shapes. In the sweep of the brush, there’s a sense of movement, a gesture. It makes me think about other painters, like Manet or Degas, who were also interested in capturing the fleeting moments of modern life. Artists are always in conversation, you know? They’re always riffing off each other’s ideas, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways. Painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.