Vrouwenhoofd met hoed 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a woman’s head with a hat at an unknown date, using ink on paper. The marks are so open, and raw, almost like a scribble, that you get the feeling Israels wasn’t trying to depict a specific person, but instead was more interested in the act of drawing itself. There’s a real looseness in the application of the ink, a scratchy texture that gives it a kind of vulnerability. The lines are thin, almost tentative in places, and then suddenly bold, confident, decisive. Look at how the hat is rendered, it’s barely there, just a few strokes, but somehow it suggests both form and movement. Then look at the way the face is rendered, particularly the eyes, which have a real sense of depth. The blank area to the left is just as important as the drawn elements, allowing your eye to rest and contemplate the figure. Israels’s drawing reminds me of work by Manet, who was similarly interested in capturing the fleeting moments of modern life. Ultimately, it’s a meditation on the act of seeing, and how we make sense of the world through marks and gestures.