Vrouw met trompet, zwevend op wolken 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of a woman with a trumpet floating on clouds with pen and ink. The image is a flurry of lines that really capture the feeling of movement and lightness. I can imagine Gestel's hand moving quickly across the paper, trying to catch a fleeting image of the woman in his mind. Maybe he was thinking about the act of announcing something, or of heralding change? The dark, bold strokes that define the figure contrast with the wispy, delicate lines used to depict the clouds, giving the drawing a dreamlike quality. The way the lines build up the form reminds me of other modernist drawings by artists like Kandinsky. There's a conversation happening, a through-line of mark-making that spans across different artists and movements. I like to think of all art as a form of communication; artists responding to one another across time. What does this drawing say to you?