Portret van Jan Toorop 1920 - 1922

Leo Gestel made this drawing, Portret van Jan Toorop, with brush and black ink. Imagine him hunched over a table, quickly capturing Toorop’s likeness, the ink bleeding into the page, almost calligraphic. I love how Gestel fearlessly lays down these broad strokes, defining Toorop’s features with an almost brutal honesty. Look at those heavy lines above the eye, suggesting a furrowed brow, maybe deep in thought, maybe just tired. You can see the influence of artists like Kirchner or Schmidt-Rottluff, but Gestel makes it his own through an almost intimate portrayal of the sitter. It's like he’s not just painting a face, but trying to convey a sense of inner life, a fleeting moment of contemplation. These portraits are never really about the subject, are they? More about what the painter sees, or wants to see, in them. It’s a beautiful conversation across time.