Groep zittende vrouwen, mogelijk in een park 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this sketch, 'Group of Seated Women, possibly in a Park,' with a graphic pencil on paper. Israels, a Dutch Jewish artist, lived in a time of shifting social landscapes and burgeoning industrialization. In this work, Israels captures a moment of leisure amongst women, possibly in a park. Their fashion suggests a bourgeois class, yet the sketch’s unfinished quality hints at the fleeting nature of their social status. It reflects the gendered experience of public space, where women were both on display and circumscribed by societal expectations. Israels, as a male artist, captures them from an external viewpoint, which raises questions about the gaze, and who is granted access to public spaces and how they are portrayed.