Vrouwenhoofd 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouwenhoofd, with pencil on paper. I love this simple sketch. It's so bare, so reduced. The lines are tentative and searching as Israels attempts to capture something of this woman’s inner life. I imagine him looking at the subject, then at the page, trying to connect the two through the movement of his hand. The hatching that defines the hair, it’s almost like he’s feeling for the form, groping around in the dark. I think of other artists who have worked in a similar way, like Paula Modersohn-Becker, whose drawings also have this raw, immediate quality. There is a feeling, like you are watching them thinking, feeling, and seeing. Each line is a kind of question, an exploration. And in the end, it’s not about getting it “right,” but about the process itself, the act of seeing and trying to understand. That's how artists speak to each other, and to us.