Kraaiende haan 1934 - 1936

Leo Gestel made this drawing of a rooster at the Rijksmuseum using ink. It's a pretty simple monochrome palette of creamy off-white and bold black ink, and just look at the confidence of those lines. I can really feel Gestel enjoying the process of mark-making, playing with the balance between representation and abstraction. I get a sense of the rooster's pride and assertiveness, its neck stretched upwards in full cry. I bet he really went for it. You can almost hear him crowing away. The marks are both playful and purposeful, defining the form of the rooster while also creating a dynamic composition. There is a tension between the rooster and the surrounding shapes. The use of negative space is also interesting. The rooster almost appears suspended. I see echoes of cubism and expressionism here. It makes me wonder what other artists Gestel might have been looking at, what ideas were circulating in his mind. You can see he's part of that ongoing artistic conversation.