Twee acrobaten op een podium c. 1915s - 1925s

Isaac Israels made this pencil sketch, Twee acrobaten op een podium, at an unknown date. Just look at the speed of those lines, and the confidence! It’s like he’s trying to capture the essence of movement and balance, maybe even the feeling of being upside down. I can almost feel the stage lights and hear the music. I wonder what it was like for Israels to sit there, quickly sketching these figures in motion. He really focused on the bodies, the way the light hits them, the tension in their muscles, while using the shading to create a sense of depth. He’s not just copying what he sees but trying to distill the performance to its most essential gestures, and that makes me think about Degas and Toulouse Lautrec, both who were interested in similar subject matter. This drawing feels so immediate. It reminds us that painting, or drawing, is not just about making a perfect copy of something but about capturing a moment, an impression, a feeling. It is about being in dialogue with what you see and allowing that conversation to unfold on the page.