Studieblad met mannen en vrouwen c. 1901

Leo Gestel made this study sheet with men and women using pen and ink sometime around the turn of the last century. It’s a jumble of figures, all rendered in this quick, decisive manner. The ink is thick and opaque, each figure a solid mass against the ground of the paper. It’s like Gestel was trying to capture not just what these people looked like, but how they moved, how they occupied space. Look at the figure at the bottom center. It's as if Gestel is trying to suggest the energy and dynamism of the figure in motion. I’m reminded of Daumier, another artist who was fascinated by the hustle and bustle of modern life. Both artists share an interest in capturing the essence of everyday life through simple, gestural marks. You get the sense that artmaking is an ongoing conversation, each artist building on the ideas of those who came before, finding their own way of seeing and experiencing the world.