Paarden van verschillende kanten 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made 'Paarden van verschillende kanten' with charcoal on paper, and right away, you get a sense of the artist feeling his way through the subject. These horses aren't about perfect representation; they're about finding the essence of the animal through the act of drawing. Look closely, and you’ll notice the varying pressure of the charcoal. In places, it's a soft, smudgy grey, suggesting the curve of a muscle or the fall of light. Elsewhere, the lines are sharp and decisive, capturing the angles of a leg or the set of a head. See how Gestel uses the weight of the line to give volume and presence to these creatures. The repeated forms, one beside another, creates a feeling of movement and depth, like flipping through pages of a sketchbook. There’s something about this piece that reminds me of Franz Marc’s animal drawings, a kind of searching for the inner life of the animal through form and line. It’s a reminder that art is less about capturing reality and more about exploring the possibilities of seeing.