Staande vrouw 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing with chalk. It's a diptych, two pages from a sketchbook showing a figure lying down, and it feels like he really captured a moment, a process. On the left page, you can see the charcoal really dug in, making a bold, energetic image, while on the right, it's like he's wiped away the marks, leaving only a ghost of the form. That horizontal line really pulls the two together though. I love how Israels isn't trying to hide the making, it's all there on the surface. It reminds me of Degas, who also loved to draw figures in motion, capturing fleeting moments with a similar sense of immediacy. But Israels has this beautiful lightness too, like he’s embracing the unfinished. Art is like that sometimes, an ongoing conversation, a process of searching and finding.