Figuurstudies c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels sketched these figure studies in pencil on paper, and they're now housed at the Rijksmuseum. Look at these lines, tentative yet confident, finding their way across the page. You can almost feel Israels' hand moving, trying to capture the essence of a figure with just a few strokes. The figures emerge like ghostly apparitions. They remind me of other artists who are just trying to capture a sense of light. What was Israels thinking as he drew these? Was he trying to nail down the perfect pose, the perfect angle? Or was he just letting his hand wander, allowing the figures to emerge organically from the blank space? There's a real intimacy to these sketches. They feel like a glimpse into the artist's mind, a record of his fleeting impressions. They're not finished works, but that's what makes them so appealing. It's as though we're seeing the artist in the act of creation, grappling with form and composition. It's like eavesdropping on a conversation between the artist and his subject, a conversation that's still unfolding before our eyes.