Figuren, mogelijk op een podium c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this sketch called, Figuren, mogelijk op een podium – Figures, possibly on a stage – and it looks like it’s a quick impression done in graphite. The lines are all energy, scribbling around to find the figures, the suggestion of a stage. It’s all about the process, the thinking-through-drawing. You can almost feel Israels’ hand moving across the page, figuring things out. Look at the way he uses these quick, repeated marks to build up form and space. The texture of the graphite gives everything a kind of shimmering quality. Israels isn’t trying to hide anything; it’s all there on the surface. The ambiguity of the piece is appealing, is it a rehearsal or a performance? Thinking about other artists who worked this way, I’m reminded of Degas and his sketches of dancers, that same sense of capturing a fleeting moment, a gesture, and the feeling of movement. It’s like looking at a memory, or a dream, something that’s always shifting and changing.