Kussend stel 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing, Kussend stel, with a crayon on paper. The marks are broad and smudgy at the top, suggesting a head and shoulders, and then become more linear and sketchy towards the base. This gives me the impression that the embrace is only just forming. It’s as if the figures have just coalesced from a storm of marks, and you’ve caught them in the first moment of contact! I imagine Gestel really putting his weight into those top marks, pressing hard, almost blindly to get the heft of the figures across. Whereas the sparser lines at the bottom seem tentative as if he’s only just feeling his way into the composition, deciding how much to reveal. It makes me think about how all paintings are really a meeting place; in this case, a literal meeting place between lovers and also between the artist’s hand and eye.