Koeien 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing, Koeien, using what looks like charcoal or graphite on paper. I love the immediacy of it, the way the cows appear on the page as a series of quick, searching marks. You can almost feel Gestel circling his subject, trying to capture the essence of these animals with just a few lines. The dark marks create a rhythm, a sense of movement, as if the cows are shifting and grazing right before our eyes. I imagine Gestel standing in a field, squinting in the sun, quickly sketching to pin them down. There is a calligraphic quality to the lines, each stroke precise, descriptive, full of intention. It reminds me of Franz Marc’s animal paintings but with a stripped-down, modernist sensibility. Gestel reduces the cows to their most basic forms, capturing their weight and mass with surprising elegance. It is like he is saying something essential about the nature of painting itself—how a few well-placed marks can evoke an entire world.