Twee badende vrouwen en een rugfiguur c. 1929 - 1930

Leo Gestel made this watercolor, Twee badende vrouwen en een rugfiguur, with delicate hues. Just imagine the act of painting, the artist in their studio, maybe working from sketches or photos, and the image slowly emerging through layers of thin washes. I really feel for Gestel here, trying to capture the complexities of the human form with such gentle strokes. What might he have been thinking about as he worked? I love how the colors blend and bleed into one another, creating this almost dreamlike vision. The paint is so thin, so watery, it’s like he’s barely touching the surface. And yet, within the softness of the colours and forms, there is a structure and a sense of movement, a rhythm of light and shadow. It feels like Gestel is in conversation with other painters who explored similar themes, like Cézanne’s bathers or Matisse’s dancers. Painting is like that—artists looking at each other, borrowing ideas, pushing each other to see the world in new ways. This piece really emphasizes how painting is a form of embodied expression, full of ambiguity and uncertainty.