Vrouw 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouw, with pencil on paper. The loose lines create the image of a woman with a hat. I imagine the artist quickly sketching the woman from life, capturing her likeness with just a few strokes. The lines seem to float across the paper as if she is being seen through glass. There's a real sense of the artist trying to understand the figure and get it down on paper, and I can empathize with that as a painter myself. It’s as though Israels is feeling his way around the subject, trying to grasp her essence through these marks. He is capturing not just the outward appearance, but also something of the woman’s spirit. It reminds me of other artists who worked in this way, such as Edgar Degas, for example. The process of drawing is a conversation. Artists are in an ongoing exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.