Brief aan Jan Ponstijn en Henriëtte Johanna Petronella van Hilten Possibly 1941 - 1942

This letter was composed by Leo Gestel in Blaricum, Holland, on the 25th of February, 1941. The handwriting sprawls across the page with an almost frantic energy, like charcoal sketches dashed off in a fit of inspiration. It’s all about the gesture, the movement of the hand, and the pressure of the pen creating thin and thick lines. Gestel isn’t trying to be neat or precise here. Each word is a kind of abstract mark, and the overall effect is a field of textures. Look at the way certain letters are looped back on themselves, creating dense pockets of ink. See how other strokes trail off into delicate wisps, barely clinging to the page. It’s a dance between intention and accident. You can see echoes of Van Gogh's expressive brushwork in the urgency of Gestel's script. Both artists seem less concerned with conveying fixed meanings than with capturing the raw energy of the moment. And, like all great art, this letter invites us to find our own meanings, to project our own emotions onto its ambiguous surface.