Portret van een onbekende man 1921

This portrait of an unknown man was made with chalk on paper by Leo Gestel in 1921, and now it hangs in the Rijksmuseum. The man's brow is furrowed, his gaze askance, and he's rendered in smoky gray tones. I wonder what Gestel was thinking as he made this image. Was he trying to capture the likeness of a specific person, or was he after something more universal? You know, sometimes it’s not about who you are painting but what you are doing when you're painting. Gestel's marks are assertive but economical; each line seems to carry a lot of weight. And the texture of the chalk gives the surface a gritty, almost tactile quality. There’s a dialogue that happens between artists across generations, this give and take, so I can’t help but see the influence of artists like Cezanne in Gestel’s approach.