Elegant Parisians along an allée in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris

Whilst living in Paris during the first decade of the 20th Century, Isaac engaged with the art of his contemporaries, spending time with amongst others the Dutch artists Marius Bauer (1867-1932), Kees van Dongen (1887-1968) and Jan Toorop (1858-1928). A broad range of themes were worked on, including the café's and cabarets of Montmartre, the races at Longchamp and the Bois de Boulogne. The present pastel, executed with graceful lines and broad areas of colour, is an exemplary work from this period. Israels' biographer Anna Wagner, referring to his Parisian pastels, writes:

'Zijn pasteltechniek ontwikkelt zich in deze jaren tot grote hoogte. Het lineaire element verzaakt hij daarbij niet. Naast met breed krijt geschetste vlakken komen vele speelse lijnen in de werken voor; soms is bijvoorbeeld van twee meisjesgezichten in eenzelfde pastel, het ene geheel met scherpe omtreklijnen getekend, terwijl hij het tweede de ronding van het gelaat geheel door gedoezeld krijt tot stand is gekomen' (see: Anna Wagner, Isaac Israels, Rotterdam 1967, p. 40).

It almost seems as if Wagner could be referring to the present lot. The face of the young woman seated to the left is built up from colour whilst the face of the woman sitting next to her clearly delineated using charcoal lines. It is the combination of these techniques that make Isaac's pastels from this period so animated and dynamic. It is a method that meets the Parisian pace of life itself.