Figuurstudies 1875 - 1934

Here's what Isaac Israels sketched; a flurry of lines and gestures, a quest to capture movement and form, a dance between observation and expression. I can almost feel the artist's hand at work, chasing after the fleeting figures, trying to pin them down on paper, but never quite succeeding. The figures seem to emerge and dissolve before our eyes. Look at that figure on the left, the soft lines which define the face, the long flowing robes, the gentle slope of the shoulders; and then look at the figure on the right. Imagine Israels trying to capture the essence of each figure with such a minimal, elegant vocabulary. This work reminds me of other sketchers like Daumier or Degas; a shared pursuit of capturing the ephemeral moments of modern life. It’s like the ghost of a conversation between artists across time; a conversation about the possibilities of mark-making, the challenge of representing movement, and the beauty of the unfinished.