Vooroverbuigende figuur, mogelijk een danser 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vooroverbuigende figuur, mogelijk een danser, with a stick of graphite on paper. It's a quick sketch, more about feeling than seeing. Israels really gets the essence of movement, doesn’t he? The charcoal kind of crumbles as it moves across the page. Look at the build up of dark tone in the dancer’s hair, it becomes the centre of gravity for the whole image. The rest of the figure seems to drift upwards and become more and more blurred, until eventually the figure dissolves into thin air. It reminds me of some of Degas’ drawings of dancers, also done in charcoal. You can tell that both artists are more interested in the body as a site of movement and energy, than in simple representation. The ambiguity here is what makes it so beautiful, it opens a space of possibility.