Zelfportret 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this self-portrait with graphite on paper, though we can't be certain when. The face is just roughed in, not much more than an outline, yet it gives the impression of a real person. The marks are simple and direct; you can almost see the artist quickly moving the graphite across the page as though he were trying to capture an idea before it disappeared. It’s like he’s trying to pin himself down, a ghost of a self-portrait. There's a kind of energy in this sketch, a searching quality. Look at the blankness of the eyes and the sureness of the nose. These small contrasts are interesting; they seem to be the difference between someone just waking up and someone about to start the day. Gestel plays with his own image as a space for trying things out, a testing ground. It reminds me of the sketches Picasso made for his portraits of Gertrude Stein, that same sense of paring down to the essential forms. But where Picasso feels assertive and confident, Gestel is more tentative and questioning.