Vrouw kapt een andere vrouw 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of two women, one cutting the other's hair, in graphite on paper. I love how Israels uses the bare minimum of lines to suggest so much. You can see the confidence in each stroke, like he knew exactly what he wanted to capture. I bet he was totally focused, almost meditative, as he worked. It reminds me of Degas, but looser. There's this sense of immediacy. It's like he's saying, "I'm not gonna fuss over details, I'm just gonna get the essence of this moment." And that one dark, scribbled area near the bottom? That's where the hair is falling, right? I can almost hear the snip, snip, snip of the scissors. It's really cool how artists can do that, take something so everyday and turn it into something poetic. It’s all about how the hand moves and what the eye sees, and how those things talk to each other.