Vrouwenhoofd 1875 - 1934

Isaac Israels made this drawing, Vrouwenhoofd, with pencil on paper, and what strikes me is how the bare minimum of marks can suggest so much. The process here is laid bare; there's no hiding, just a raw, exploratory set of lines. Look at the density of the shading around her eye. It's like a little universe of marks, all jostling for space, creating depth and volume. The materiality of the pencil is so present – you can almost feel the scratch of graphite on the page. Then there's the lightness of touch in the stray lines that suggest her hair, a deliberate contrast. It reminds me a little of Rodin's drawings, that same sense of capturing a fleeting moment, a gesture, with incredible economy. Art is always a conversation, isn't it? This drawing, like any good artwork, is more of a question than an answer, an invitation to see the world in a new way.