Figuren in een kleedkamer c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this sketch, ‘Figures in a Dressing Room,’ with pencil on paper. It's like seeing someone think out loud. The scene is sketched with such immediacy; you can almost feel Israels capturing a fleeting moment. There’s an urgency to the lines, a need to record what's there and then, with details dissolving into a network of hatched marks. Notice, for example, the head of the reclining figure, and how a few short strokes suggest the shadow of the nose. This sketch shares something with Degas' drawings of dancers – a fascination with the body in motion, rendered through loose, searching lines. But Israels brings his own sensibility, a lighter touch that captures not just the form but the very air around it. Artmaking isn't about definitive statements but embracing the beauty of the uncertain and the unresolved.