Vredesduif 1934 - 1936

Leo Gestel made this Vredesduif – that’s ‘peace dove’ in Dutch – as a drawing, sometime around November 11, 1918, the day the First World War ended. Imagine sitting there with your pen, trying to capture that feeling of hope and release. The dove itself is drawn with such simple lines, but it’s full of movement. You can almost see it flapping its wings, carrying that olive branch like a promise. The lines look so shaky, I wonder if the artist’s hand was shaking when he made it. I like how the shading gives the dove volume. It also creates a kind of pattern that your eye bounces across. It’s simple and direct, yet deeply felt. It reminds me of other symbolic images in art history, but with a modern twist. Artists are constantly building on what came before, transforming old ideas into something new.