Seated Female Nude c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this 'Seated Female Nude' with brush and ink. Look how he's made a figure emerge using a limited tonal range. I imagine Israels, quickly and intuitively, using the brush like a calligraphy pen, to map out the form with as few lines as possible. He seems to be capturing a sense of flow, trying to find the form of the body in the moment. I've done that myself, where you just want to capture something ephemeral about a figure in motion. See how the lines vary in thickness and darkness. It's almost as if the body is being described by light and shadow rather than contour. The way the dark strokes define the back and shoulders, there’s a real weight to them. It’s like he’s saying: here’s a body, not perfect, not idealized, just present. And I think that honesty, that directness, is what makes this piece so compelling. The economy of line reminds me of Matisse, who also had such an incredible ability to say so much with so little. It's all part of the same conversation, isn't it?