Artiesten op het toneel 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing called ‘Artiesten op het toneel’, or ‘Artists on Stage’, using graphite. It’s all about the energy of mark-making. Israels is thinking through drawing, feeling his way into the image. Look at how he uses the graphite. It's all about short, energetic strokes. You can almost feel him circling around the forms, not trying to define them perfectly, but capturing the buzz of the performance. There’s a dancer center stage, arms raised high, and the energy of the drawing seems to radiate from that figure. The marks are layered, creating depth and shadow, but also a sense of movement. You could think about Degas and his drawings of ballet dancers, but Israels brings something different, an almost nervous energy, a raw immediacy. It's less about observation and more about feeling the performance. What is so cool is that it leaves you with this sense of something fleeting, a moment caught in time.