Vrouwenhoofd 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of a woman's head, we don't know when, using what looks like ink on paper. The palette here is all monochrome, delicate hatching suggesting the contours of the head in profile. I can imagine him making this, the pen scratching gently on the page, building up this form line by line. He must have been thinking about volume and shadow. Look how the marks build up to create the mass of hair, a cloud of scribbled energy sitting above the more carefully rendered face. It's as if the hair has a life of its own. I’m struck by how this simple drawing captures something so essentially human. Like a conversation, ideas about form, and space, and mark-making are being passed around in an ongoing exchange. There's a generosity in this approach, in opening up a space for us to bring our own experiences and interpretations. It's like Gestel is saying: “Here’s what I see, what do you see?”