Portret van jager, en profil, met hoed op en sigaar in de mond 1925 - 1927

Leo Gestel made this portrait of a hunter with graphite on paper. The marks are soft and smudgy, clearly applied with the side of the graphite to create areas of tone and shadow. It reminds me of making preparatory drawings in art school: quick, a bit rough, but capturing something essential. The artist clearly wanted to work out the main shapes of the figure, focusing on the way light falls across the form and defines the features. Look at the rendering of the hand holding a glass, it feels tentative and unresolved, the roundness of the glass only suggested by a few curving lines. I find this approach liberating. It says: it’s ok to leave things open, to embrace the unfinished. Gestel allows us to see the process, rather than concealing it. Gestel seems to be influenced by Cezanne, an artist who also left a lot of space for ambiguity in his work. Art is an ongoing conversation, a dialogue across time.