Zittende vrouw met haar benen over elkaar, in profiel c. 1930 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing of a seated woman with her legs crossed, in profile, with graphite on paper. Look at those rapid, searching lines! You can almost see the artist circling the figure, trying to nail down the pose. I wonder, what was Israels thinking as he sketched? Was he captivated by the woman's casual posture, or was he more interested in the challenge of capturing her form with such minimal means? The sketch has a restless energy, like Israels was chasing after something elusive. See how some lines are darker, more assertive, while others are light and tentative? Drawing is such an intimate act, isn’t it? It is a conversation between the eye, the hand, and the subject. It's like a dance, a back-and-forth of looking and marking, feeling and seeing. In those few lines, Israels manages to convey so much—a sense of weight, of volume, of a person caught in a moment of repose. It's the kind of drawing that makes you want to pick up a pencil and try to capture the world around you.