Biddend meisje c. 1930 - 1935

Curator: This drawing, made with pencil around 1930-1935, is called "Biddend meisje," or "Praying Girl," by Leo Gestel. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum's collection. What strikes you about it initially? Editor: It's incredibly tender, almost fragile. The lightness of the pencil work gives it an ethereal quality, like capturing a fleeting moment of private contemplation. The repetition of the image is nice. As if the prayer echoes into being. Curator: Right, that's partly Gestel’s method shining through. Known for his engagement with diverse movements from Impressionism to Cubism, here we see a sketch really focused on process—it feels like a direct link to the artist's hand and immediate thought. Think about the availability of materials during that interwar period. Was he, by chance, capturing what was on hand? Editor: Perhaps the paper's imperfections too add to the sense of vulnerability, as though the drawing itself is susceptible to time and weathering. It feels less about pristine execution, and more about capturing the ephemeral. But prayer can be pretty weather-worn. Curator: The sketch’s apparent simplicity masks Gestel’s more formal explorations with form and repetition. The material limitation could also contribute to why these don’t carry the aesthetic polish you’d expect, for instance, in commissioned portraits. We also have to understand this was likely an exploratory study of a figure. Editor: You can see it as process, absolutely, but there's also a quiet emotional weight to this piece. Even if she wasn't intended as a saint or biblical figure, the image holds a very gentle universality and could speak to the broader human search for solace or connection. Maybe a gentle rebellion too! Curator: So you think that Gestel perhaps was not aiming for art for arts sake? More to offer everyday spiritualism perhaps in his work, given it's modest scale, sketchwork? This departs so far from any conventional Dutch Golden Age aesthetic! Editor: Yes, a different world than what those artists knew! A reminder that we can see these small intimate drawings and studies with as much intensity as any large-scale finished piece. Curator: I concur. The materials and method tell just as important of a story. Editor: Precisely! It lets the light in...