Three Black Horses
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Brush and black ink on cream paper. Three horses stand together, all facing left, their bodies painted as solid black silhouettes with minimal interior detail. The manes are indicated by quick horizontal strokes. The legs are thin, angular, slightly splayed. The brushwork is fast and calligraphic, with the black ink varying from dense and saturated in the bodies to dry and broken at the edges and hooves. The paper is left bare everywhere else. Gestel was a leading figure in Dutch modernism alongside Mondrian and Sluijters. His uncle had painted with Van Gogh. A studio fire in 1929 destroyed the majority of his work.