Ex libris voor J. Slagter (ontwerp) c. 1935 - 1940

Leo Gestel made this graphite drawing on paper as a bookplate design for J. Slagter. It’s all about simple lines, capturing a winged horse soaring above a little town. Imagine Gestel sketching this, trying to find just the right curve for the horse’s back, getting that sense of movement with just a few strokes. The town below looks like a memory, each building quickly rendered. I wonder if Gestel was thinking about Pegasus as a symbol of inspiration, a kind of creative force that lifts us above the everyday. It reminds me of other artists who use drawing to explore ideas, like Guston, whose simple forms carried such emotional weight. Gestel's line is so straightforward, yet it conveys so much—a sense of freedom, of looking down on the world from a new perspective. It's like he’s saying that art can take you anywhere, even on the back of a flying horse. We’re all connected, each of us building on what came before.