Drie naakte vrouwen 1891 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of three nude women with what looks like charcoal on paper. There’s a real emphasis on the act of mark-making itself, a kind of energetic exploration of form. It's less about rendering and more about searching. The texture of the charcoal is so present. You can practically feel the artist’s hand moving across the page. The varied pressure creates these areas of depth, where the charcoal is densely packed, and moments where it's just a whisper of a line. Look at the figure on the left, see how the strokes around the torso are so forceful, but then compare that to the delicate outlines of the figure to the right. I think the way the figures are built up from loose, gestural marks mirrors the process of understanding a person, a body, in all its complexity. Gestel’s interest in the physicality of the medium reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who was making some incredible nudes at a similar time. Both artists embrace the ambiguity of form, making us question what we think we know about the body.