Skelet van een paard 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of a horse skeleton, sometime in his career, using what looks like charcoal and maybe some red chalk on paper. It's all about the process here, you can almost feel Gestel working through the form. I love how the marks are so raw and immediate. The lines are not precious. They build up to create a sense of depth and volume in a way that’s so casual. The red chalk gives warmth to the cold subject matter, like life clinging to bone. The ribs are my favourite, they're just these simple, curved lines, yet they perfectly suggest the structure underneath. This reminds me of other artists like Käthe Kollwitz, who also used drawing to express the rawness and fragility of life. Ultimately, it's about the back and forth between observation and invention and seeing art as a conversation across time.