The body seems to be in a state of taut expectancy, as though awaiting a caress. The body conveys materiality, whereas the face is the mirror of dreams, of yearning, of weariness, and at times also of sadnes...

A soft, voluptuous femininity emanates from the nudity of these girls, who were privileged to be depicted by an accomplished draughtsman, sensitive to every rustle of Eros' wings. Here, this young Israeli artist has accomplished a most difficult artistic task, of which Van Gogh had written : "I must reach the stage where I am able to paint a figure with a few strokes". Emmanuel's drawings testify to his complete mastery of the draughtsman's skill, to the spontaneity and directness of representational ability. Emmanuel very soon contrived to portray the nude through the medium of light and shade; from there, he went on to light sketches of the body in various positions, to movement, and finally to his most original three-dimensional, curvilinear representation; this emphasises the sculptural quality of his latter drawings of the nude, which are his crowning achievement as a draughtsman.

He made exacting demands on himself to express his inner world - that ancient world that sought entrance into his humble shack at the edge of the kibbutz,a world that abounded in sunlight-drenched Oriental legend. For whenever some slim, good-looking girl came