Hartelijke gelukswenschen c. 1938 - 1939

Leo Gestel made this pencil drawing, 'Hartelijke gelukswenschen', sometime in the late 1930s. The drawing is a playful composition with a strong element of civic pride. Here, Gestel is creating an elaborate greeting card to celebrate a 12-year wedding anniversary. He arranges the text in a block like a public proclamation, but it's the image at the top that captures our attention. Two figures on horseback gallop towards us, seeming to burst out of a cityscape with church spires and smoking chimneys. The man in the top hat carries a flag, while the woman beside him holds up a bouquet of flowers. We can imagine these figures as representatives of the happy couple, or perhaps the town itself, celebrating a milestone. Understanding this image fully requires looking into the civic culture of the Netherlands in the interwar years. What were the key industries and institutions? What kinds of public rituals were common? These are questions that help us to understand the social life of art.