Vrouwelijk naakt 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouwelijk naakt, with graphite on paper. The tentative quality of the marks here really gets me, it feels more like an attitude than an image. There's a real sense of Israels figuring it out as he goes. The smudged graphite in the upper right corner, it’s like a failed start, but it stays there on the page. I love that the image is not overly precious. The lines are suggestive, not descriptive. The artist isn't trying to capture a likeness so much as he's trying to understand something about the body in space. Like a Cy Twombly, it hints at classicism, but the smudges and unfinished quality throw a wrench in the works. It’s a really beautiful example of a drawing where the process is part of the point.