Korenschoven in de Beemster

The years before 1913 were crucial for Gestel's artistic development. Because of new influences from Paris, he had started experimenting with new ways of expressing himself. The luminist years (1909-1910) were left behind, as was the short-lived influence of Kees van Dongen, whose work he had seen on an earlier visit to Paris in 1910. Inspired by these foreign examples, Gestel would finally realize his potential. And from 1911 onwards his individual mix of fauvist, cubist and futurist influences would bring him great success as one of the three leading modernists together with Jan Sluijters and Piet Mondriaan. According to A.B. Loosjes-Terpstra, his best work is executed around 1913. She writes: ‘1913 was a very fruitful year. In the spring of 1913, the painter summarized, in a large retrospective exhibition, his complete development until then’.

During summer Gestel used to go the rural country side of Bergen where he focused on his development as an artist by taking the landscape as his subject. During the summer of 1913, after his recent successes, he painted the present lot in his by then mature cubist style. The soft greens, yellows and purples flow perfectly together constructing this beautiful extensive landscape. Gestel was so inspired during this summer that he did not want to wait a whole year to paint outside, as winter time simply was too cold in The Netherlands. Initially he wanted to spend the winter months on the Canarian Islands, but costs were too high. Jan Toorop advised him to contact William Degouve de Nuncques who spent two years in Mallorca. In January 1914 Leo Gestel went, together with his wife and the artists Else Berg and Mommie Schwarz to Mallorca with the intention of painting en plein air. Piet Boendermaker and his wife, important collectors of modern art at the time, joined them soon after. The present work was part of this famous collection of Piet Boendermaker.