Vrouwenhoofd, in profiel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this head of a woman, in profile, with a stick of charcoal, and a whole lot of seeing. Look at how the marks build up, dark, darker, darkest! He must have been squinting, pushing the charcoal, trying to get that weight, that mass of hair. I love how the lines are so clear and confident, even when they're just hinting at a shape. There's a real sense of the artist figuring things out as he goes, responding to the charcoal and the texture of the paper. You can almost feel him there, deciding what to emphasize, what to leave out. The drawing is not overworked but has this freshness of the moment! This reminds me of other artists, like Degas, who loved to capture fleeting moments and impressions. It's like they're all in conversation, you know, across time, influencing each other. I'm left with a feeling of possibility. It’s like he wants us to see what he saw: not a fixed idea, but a living, breathing moment.