Staande vrouw met gestrekte armen 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of a standing woman with outstretched arms at an unknown date, using a pencil on paper. The first thing you notice is the immediacy of the line. It’s exploratory, as if Israels is thinking through the form in real time. The marks are tentative, searching for the right contour, and there’s a wonderful openness to that process. It's as if the artist is asking, "What if the arm goes here? Or maybe here?" Look at how the figure emerges from a series of light, almost scribbled lines. You can see the ghost of earlier attempts, corrections, a kind of pentimento that reveals the artist's thought process. There's an unfinished quality that invites us to participate, to complete the image in our own minds. It reminds me of Degas, with his dancers caught in fleeting moments, or even a Cy Twombly drawing. It's a reminder that art is not about perfection, but about the act of seeing, questioning, and engaging with the world.