Mand met bloemen 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of a flower basket, sometime in his life, probably with ink on paper. Look at how sure and bold the lines are! They remind me a little of Matisse, maybe? I wonder if Gestel was thinking of him, too, when he made this. I imagine him bending over the page, totally focused. There’s something so confident about the way the flowers are outlined, with the leaves full of dense hatching. It’s like he’s not just drawing what he sees, but also thinking about how those lines work together, the negative space within the leaves. That simple basket shape really anchors the whole composition. It's like he’s saying, "Here is a world, all in one tidy little place." Gestel did a lot of different kinds of paintings throughout his career. It's interesting to see him working with something so seemingly straightforward. All painters are in conversation with each other, across time, inspiring each other’s creativity!