Leo Gestel artwork • watercolour • drawing • for sale A roller skating rink with Japanese lanterns

Gestel was a virtuoso draughtsman. He preferred to make drawings in chalk and pastel of elegant women and the fashionable nightlife of Amsterdam around the Rembrandtplein. The pastel depicted here must have been made around 1910 after Gestel, together with Jan Sluijters, had visited Paris for a number of years and had captured elegant women and the fashionable nightlife there. The composition is striking, in which the space in the centre of the image plane is left open and the figures are concentrated along the edge of the image. Gestel thus creates the illusion of a circular movement, which is set in motion by the approaching couple on the left: the man in a tailcoat, the woman in a walking suit with a large hat, fur stole and bag. Around 1910, roller skating was more of a fashionable pastime for ladies and gentlemen of good descent than a sport for the common people. Following the example of Paris, London and Berlin, Amsterdam had its first roller skating rink in 1897. But it wasn't until around 1910 that a real craze was born. A luxury roller rink was built in the Paleis voor Volksvlijt on Frederiksplein, with an orchestra and a stage on which shows were performed. This pastel was probably made there.