LEO GESTEL
(Woerden 1881-1941 Hilversum)
Danse Orientale, c. 1911, oil and mixed media on paper, 547 x 38 mm
(SOLD)
Provenance:
private collection, the Netherlands.
Literature:
M.E.Th. Estourgie-Beijer, Leo Gestel: Schilder en tekenaar, Zwolle 1993, p. 34, ill. p. 36.
Exhibited:
Laren, Singer Museum, Leo Gestel: Schilder en tekenaar, 28.11.1993 – 30.01.1994, no. 48.
During a brief period when modern art flourished in the Netherlands at the dawn of the twentieth century Leo Gestel painted Danse Orientale in circa 1911. At the time there was an intense artistic exchange among the international avant-garde. Gestel visited Paris for the third time in 1911. He travelled together with his future wife An Overtoom and his friend Jan Sluiters and his wife. In Paris the Fauves’ work caught his attention. It caused a change in his stylistic development. Color, shapes and lines started to dominate Gestel’s compositions. He avoided traditional perspective in his work resulting in typical modern pictorial flatness. Danse Orientale is one of the first examples of Gestel’s new style.
Danse Orientale is related to two other paintings by Gestel with the same subject. The present painting is the first version and the creative fundament on which the two other paintings are based. Only one of them (fig. 1) survived. The other version (fig. 2) got destroyed during a fire in Gestel’s atelier in 1929. The latter painting was exhibited at the Moderne Kunstkring exhibition in 1912.
The Dutch artist society the Moderne Kunstkring was founded by Conrad Kickert and Jan Sluiters while working in Paris in 1910. Inspired by the art scene in the French capital they wanted to promote modern avant-garde art in the Netherlands. With exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam they showcased the latest international and national trends in 1911, 1912 and 1913. Works by Pablo Picasso, George Braque, Leo Gestel, Piet Mondrian, Paul Cezanne, Lodewijk Schelfhout, Jan Toorop, Paul Gauguin, Franz Marc, Kees van Dongen, Henri le Faucconier, Vassily Kandinsky and many others caused a shockwave among the conservative Dutch audience.
At the dawn of the twentieth century Paris was the centre of the artistic avant-garde. The performing art scene flourished in the French capital. Non-European and contemporary dances were increasingly popular. The „visual language“ of the ‚new dances’ dazzled spectators and inspired many painters and sculptors.
Since the trade with the East in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there had been a European interest in non-Western art and culture. With the advent of modern transportation systems – by railway and steamships – exotic cultures became more easily accessible to a wider audience in Europe. In 1889 the Exposition Universelle included many non-European participants. One of the most popular pavilions was the Javanese Kampong with almost one million visitors. Traditional dances were performed daily. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) made sketches of the performances. When the dance troupe of the Cambodian royal court visited France in July 1906 they inspired him to create 150 drawings in just a few days (fig. 3).
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) made his fame in Paris with his revolutionary dance company the Ballets Russes in 1909. It blurred the traditional boundaries between visual art and dance. Visually, the first Ballets Russes seasons were marked by the exotic designs of the Russian-born artist Léon Bakst (1866-1924). His bejeweled colors, swirling Art Nouveau elements and sense of the erotic re-envisioned dance productions as total works of art. Over the years Diaghilev gathered a wide range of composers, choreographers, designers and performers, but maintained ultimate control over every aspect of the productions. His greatest achievement was to ensure the close integration of story, music, choreography and design, creating spectacles where the overall impact surpassed the single elements. Famous contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954) contributed to his stage and costume designs. Around the time when Diaghilev introduced Paris to the Ballet Russes Matisse painted monumental Dance (fig. 4).