Haven met een schip en drie mannen 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this small drawing of a harbor with a boat and three men using what looks like charcoal or graphite. The marks are quick and sure, like he’s trying to catch a feeling more than a picture. Gestel is playing with space here, or maybe defying it. The boat is the most solid thing, but even it is just a collection of lines that suggest form more than define it. Notice the man standing in the bottom right corner. His jacket is made up of these confident, almost scribbled lines, which gives him a real presence. Gestel seems to be in conversation with artists like the German Expressionist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who was interested in capturing modern life in a raw and immediate way. What I love about this piece, though, is how it hints at a story without telling it, leaving space for our own imaginations to fill in the blanks.