Twee staande vrouwen 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of two standing women with graphite on paper, and it feels like he’s working out something in real-time. The marks feel loose and tentative, like he’s feeling his way around the forms. You can see the texture of the graphite, how it catches on the page, creating these little sparks of light and shadow. Look at the right-hand page, at the darker figure—the way the graphite is built up, almost like a sculptural form emerging from the paper. There’s a real physicality to it, a sense of the artist’s hand moving across the surface. It reminds me a bit of some of Degas' drawings, where he's capturing these fleeting moments of everyday life. But Israels brings his own sensibility to it, a kind of raw, unvarnished quality that I find really compelling. It's like you're witnessing the birth of an idea, the messy, beautiful process of creation.