Leo Gestel (1881-1941)

The present lot was executed in the same period when Gestel came to his famous series of autumn trees. The series from 1909-1911 is generally considered to be the peak of the 'spiritualized' image of nature in the oeuvre of Leo Gestel. The trees demand a central place in the composition and are rendered in fluent brushstrokes of bright orange and yellow, surrounded by a sky of the same lyrical expressive nature. The first signs of outlining the subject to come to a flat composition evading depth, is cleary visible in the autumn tree composition. The theme of the isolated tree in a landscape is a subject with a long Dutch tradition. For artists such as Piet Mondriaan and Leo Gestel the work of Van Gogh must have been a great source of inspiration.