Reclining Female Nude 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a reclining nude. You can see the lines have been drawn confidently but quickly, one after the other. It's as if he's trying to pin down the figure, but in a way that captures her softness and vulnerability. I wonder if Israels was thinking about other artists who had drawn nudes before him, like Rembrandt or Degas. I can almost feel the graphite stick moving across the page. The way he suggests the curves of her body with just a few strokes - that's something special. Look how the arm is rendered with a few lines, and the shadows are softly smudged to give depth and volume to the figure. I love the doubling of the image in the composition and how the work seems to sit within a sketchbook page. I think Israels saw something beautiful in the everyday, and he wanted to share that with us. It's a reminder that painting is a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling and thinking that we can all participate in.