Vrouwenhoofd 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouwenhoofd, using what looks like graphite on paper. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the surface, searching for the form, finding it, losing it, and finding it again. I imagine Israels standing before his subject, charcoal in hand, squinting, and then making a flurry of marks to capture the essence of the woman before him. You can see how the texture almost dissolves into a cloud of shading. The head itself is kind of floating there. The whole drawing feels like a fleeting moment, and maybe that's how he saw her. Artists are always working with what came before, so it's almost like this drawing has a conversation with other artists through time. It reminds me a little of Degas's sketches, the way he captured the essence of movement and light. In a drawing like this, we can appreciate not just the finished image but the whole messy, beautiful process of seeing and feeling and trying to make sense of the world.