Staande vrouw in oosterse kleding 1887 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch of a standing woman in what they call ‘oriental’ clothes with pastel on paper, but who knows when! It's one of those images that seems to appear more than it was made, emerging from a flurry of ochre and red scribbles. I can imagine Israels standing there, charcoal in hand, trying to catch something fleeting, almost as if the woman was about to disappear. Look at those marks – they’re not labored, but full of speedy confidence. See how he lets the strokes of pastel define the form, the way the brown suggests a background without really describing it. There's a real exchange happening, the artist responds to the subject, the drawing in turn seems to respond to the artist. It feels so immediate, like a whisper of a moment. It reminds me that art isn’t just about the final product, it's also about the act of seeing and feeling and trying to get something down, even if it's smudgy, unsure, and gone tomorrow.