Leo Gestel (Dutch, 1881–1941)

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Self Portrait, by Leo Gestel. Pencil on paper, 1913

Leo Gestel was a Dutch Modernist painter. With a wide-ranging practice that spanned media, Gestel’s work is wildly eclectic, shifting through movements and styles such as Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, and Post-Impressionism. Perhaps the unifying thread throughout the artist’s work is his recurring affinity for portraiture, wherein he often painted and drew himself, his friends, and regular models. Born on November 11, 1881 in Woerden, the Netherlands, his early life was burdened with financial woe and commercial advertisement jobs. Gestel was slowly able to launch himself to the forefront of Dutch Modernism, rising to prominence in tandem with his peer Piet Mondrian after the two came in contact with the Parisian avant-garde in the 1910s. Sadly, the majority of Gestel’s works were destroyed in a studio fire in 1929, after which he produced little until his death on November 26, 1941 in Hilversum, the Netherlands.

Nude