Twee jongen vrouwen in badkleding op het strand 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels sketched these two young women on the beach in bathing suits. The beach itself, as a place of leisure, carries a potent symbolism. For centuries, the sea has represented the unconscious, a realm of mystery and danger. The beach, then, is the liminal space, the border between the known and the unknown. Consider Botticelli’s Venus emerging from the sea, an iconic image of beauty born from the depths. Here, the women on the beach similarly embody a sense of emerging into a new state of being. They are at leisure, not constrained by social expectations, free to exist in a space of relaxation. This act of reclining links them to the classical odalisque, but stripped of orientalist fantasy, the women offer a study in modern ease. It's a modern interpretation of nymphs in nature that invites the viewer to a deep, almost subconscious recognition of humanity's ongoing dance with nature. The motif of women by the sea recurs, a continuous echo through art history.