Zittende vrouw 1875 - 1934

This sketch, "Zittende Vrouw" by Isaac Israels, probably done in the late 19th or early 20th century, captures a figure with rapid, searching lines. There's a real immediacy in how the marks feel. It's like Israels is thinking through the charcoal, letting the process guide the form. Look at the sitter’s face and the way the form is built up through the addition of many small marks. It’s not about smooth surfaces, but about the energy of the hand moving across the page. The texture of the paper comes through and we get a sense of the powdery residue of the medium itself. Israels is playing with how little information is needed to create an image. This sketch reminds me of other artists, like Daumier, who used drawing as a way to capture the essence of a subject, embracing the ephemeral nature of observation. It shows how art is so often about suggestion and the beauty of incompleteness.