Vrouwelijk naakt in de golven die een vogel los laat, op de voorgrond een mand met bloemen 1891 - 1941

Curator: This drawing by Leo Gestel, likely created between 1891 and 1941, is titled "Vrouwelijk naakt in de golven die een vogel los laat, op de voorgrond een mand met bloemen" - which translates to "Female nude in the waves releasing a bird, with a basket of flowers in the foreground". It's rendered in pencil, and the artist’s embrace of symbolism is rather apparent here. Editor: It's so airy! Even in pencil, the lightness gives it a dreamlike quality, doesn’t it? There’s something delicate and fleeting about it, like catching a thought just as it’s about to disappear. Curator: Absolutely. Gestel employs the figure of a nude, emerging from or reclining upon waves, combined with the imagery of a bird taking flight, these motifs, particularly when presented together, often denote transcendence, transformation, and the release from earthly constraints. Birds in flight frequently represent the soul's journey or freedom. Editor: Right, that bird feels significant, doesn't it? It's almost like she’s consciously setting it free, which resonates. And flowers, that basket overflowing is such an intimate human, terrestrial symbol next to this semi-divine woman of the waves... Curator: Yes, there's that intentional interplay between earthly abundance and ethereal liberation. What stands out, considering the artist’s ties to the avant-garde, is how readily he dips into established visual allegories. You also see how the wave-woman form evokes archetypal figures and stories associated with femininity, such as Venus born from the sea. Her gesture towards the bird is more than pictorial - there's an echo of classical depictions. Editor: True, it reminds me of Botticelli's Venus but pared down, internalized. And yet the ripples almost create an enclosed or guarded frame, while this cascade of abundant flowers spills outward toward us in excess, profusion. There's a beautiful contrast there. Curator: The restraint of the Neo-Impressionist influence meets Symbolist impulses and their use of traditional metaphors. The sketch itself then, becomes an investigation—Gestel searching, thinking. Editor: I’d say, there is this vulnerable state to it, caught mid-flight, very gently rendered – like he wasn’t ready to fully let it take form, holding all those symbolic tensions ever so gracefully. Curator: Well, thank you for adding that element of thoughtful emotion and that sense of searching inquiry in response to Gestel’s subtle drawing, with all its symbols about transformations, and freedom and beauty. Editor: Yes, thanks for that look back. I'm still floating in that wave, though!