Vrouwelijk naakt 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouwelijk naakt, with chalk, here at the Rijksmuseum. There is a kind of quiet urgency to the gestures. I can almost see Israels circling the figure, trying to capture her essence with each stroke. The chalk marks are soft and smudgy, creating a hazy atmosphere around the subject. I imagine Israels, charcoal in hand, squinting at the model, trying to understand how light defines her form. It’s like he’s feeling his way around her body with the charcoal, mapping out the curves and hollows. The thinness of the lines is remarkable, the way they barely graze the surface of the paper. Then a dark scribble of chalk suggests her hair. I wonder, was he thinking of Degas or Toulouse-Lautrec while he was making this? Artists are always in conversation, you know, borrowing ideas and pushing each other to see things in new ways.