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

This is Leo Gestel's 'Ex libris voor J. Slagter (ontwerp)', a pencil on paper drawing. It feels like we're catching Gestel mid-thought, seeing the world through his process. There's a beautiful freedom in these lines, isn't there? The flying horse soaring over the rooftops – it’s not about perfection, but about the energy of the mark. The pencil feels immediate, like the image came straight from his head to the paper. Look at the horse’s wing – that sketchy, almost frantic energy. It’s repeated in the lines of the clouds, echoing the movement. And then, the solid, grounded buildings contrast with the fantasy of the horse. It’s a simple drawing but it holds so much tension between the real and the imagined. Gestel seems to be in conversation with artists like Franz Marc, with that shared love for animals and dynamic compositions. It's a reminder that art is always a dialogue, a back-and-forth across time and between imaginations.