Zwevende vrouw met trompet 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel drew this floating woman with a trumpet using pen and India ink on paper. It’s really the spontaneous nature of the ink line that grabs me. Look how Gestel sketches the form, letting the ink bleed and pool in certain areas. There’s a beautiful tension between control and accident, like a dance between intention and letting go. The woman is kind of summarily drawn, and this allows her to ‘float’ across the paper. I find myself wondering about the rest of the scene, what else she might be floating over. The brushstrokes are confident, almost like he's not afraid to make mistakes. The lines around her body are fluid and dynamic, giving her a sense of movement and energy. And that trumpet she's holding? It's like a symbol of hope or a call to action. It’s that kind of raw, unedited honesty that reminds me of artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker. It is as if both artists want to catch hold of something essential, without getting bogged down in the details. Art making at its most intuitive.