Portret van een onbekende vrouw met oorbellen c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this portrait of an unknown woman with a pencil and paper. Looking at the lines, I can just imagine Israels with his pencil, quickly trying to capture her likeness. There’s a beautiful, flowing quality to the lines that make up her hair, like waves frozen in time. I wonder what Israels was thinking as he sketched her. Was he trying to capture a fleeting moment, a particular expression? The softness of the pencil lines gives the portrait an intimate, almost dreamlike quality. It reminds me a bit of some of Degas’s drawings, that same sense of immediacy and capturing a subject in motion. The woman's gaze is so direct. It feels like she’s looking right at you, inviting you into her world. Israels and Degas, like so many artists, are in an ongoing conversation, building on each other's ideas and pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. It’s this exchange that keeps art alive, always evolving, and always surprising us.