Zonder titel Drie paarden, staand naar links kijkend, vignet voor biografie van Gestel door Prof. W. van der Pluym 1935 - 1936

Editor: Here we have Leo Gestel’s "Untitled Three Horses, Standing Looking Left, Vignette for biography of Gestel by Prof. W. van der Pluym," an ink drawing on paper created around 1935 or 1936. There’s something quite ancient and pared-down about the composition, like something you'd find on a Greek vase. What do you make of it? Curator: It speaks to a deep resonance of the horse as a symbol throughout human history, doesn't it? Consider the role of horses in mythology – from the steeds of the gods to symbols of power and freedom. This spare depiction somehow evokes all that, doesn't it? Gestel strips away detail, almost reducing the animal to its essence. What emotions do you think that invites? Editor: It feels…almost like a memory. Faint, yet familiar and evocative. Curator: Exactly. Think about how different cultures have portrayed horses: in some, they represent nobility and strength; in others, the untamed wild. The starkness here allows for multiple interpretations. Are they warhorses, reduced to silhouettes by the passage of time? Or something else? Editor: I see that now – that open invitation to interpretation. I was so focused on the lines themselves, but it's the history they evoke that's so powerful. It makes me consider the idea of the horse as a motif and what that says about the legacy of imagery itself. Curator: And consider the context—it was made as a vignette for Gestel's biography. How might that framing influence how we understand the artwork's personal symbolism for the artist? Editor: That's a great point. It almost makes them seem like phantom memories haunting Gestel's past. Curator: Precisely. Every mark carries a echo.