Steigerende paarden in een wei met bloemen 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of horses in a flower meadow, using graphite on paper. I can picture him in the field—perhaps near his home in Amsterdam—sketching quickly, trying to capture their wild energy with just a few lines. The horses almost float on the page, held in place by a few blades of grass and simple flower shapes. The lightness of touch lends an airiness to the piece, as though the horses might take off any second. Gestel doesn’t get bogged down in details. Instead, he uses the bare minimum of information, allowing the animals to emerge from the whiteness of the page. There's a sensitivity to the animal's soft form, and this gives the whole composition a tender feeling. There is a sense that the image might shift at any moment. I know that feeling well, especially when an image begins to emerge in my own work and I'm not quite sure what's there. But it is a conversation, a collaboration of sorts, between the artist and the emerging image.