Reclining Female Nude c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a nude, reclining female, sometime during his life from 1865 to 1934. It’s all line, an economy of means. I can imagine Israels hunched over the page, his hand moving quickly, trying to capture the essence of the model before her pose shifted. I wonder what he was thinking as he drew? Was he trying to capture her beauty, her vulnerability, or something else entirely? The lines around her head are agitated. It makes me wonder if he saw her as a person or just an object. I guess it's both. Look at the way he's rendered the breasts, with these little hatching marks. It’s such a simple gesture, but it conveys so much information about form and volume. And the way the lines taper off into nothingness creates a sense of delicacy and fragility. It reminds me of other quick sketchers, like Rodin, trying to capture a living moment, not an ideal. Artists are always in conversation with one another, borrowing, stealing, and riffing off each other's ideas. This drawing is just one small part of that ongoing dialogue. What will you take from it?