Zittende vrouw 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a seated woman, we don’t know exactly when, using expressive marks of graphite. Look at that flurry of lines around her form. You can almost feel the artist circling, trying to capture the essence of her pose, her weight, her presence in the room. I imagine Israels rapidly sketching, erasing, and reworking lines, searching for the right balance between form and expression. The overall tonal range is subtle, yet the drawing evokes a sense of depth and atmosphere, with the figure emerging from the background. There’s a beautiful economy of means here. The energy of this piece reminds me of other artists who worked in a similar way, like Degas with his pastels, or even some of the quick figure drawings by Picasso. Each artist trying to find the most essential way to convey the feeling of a person in space. It's like a visual conversation across time, artists riffing off each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what drawing can do.