[Standing Nude with Stockings]

From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record

Nicknamed Leonardo by his friends in art school, Leo Gestel is well known for his accomplished drawings. He was one of the leading avant-garde artists in the Netherlands in the early 20th century, alongside Piet Mondrian. His exhibition of female nudes at the 1911 international exhibition of the Moderne Kunstkring (Modern Art Circle) at the Stedelijk Museum scandalized Amsterdam and were ultimately removed from the show. This monumental drawing, Standing Nude with Stockings, might have been among the works censored in this exhibition. The model can be identified as An Overtoom, Gestel’s mistress and muse, whom he met in 1911, and later married. Gestel demonstrates his tremendous skill as a draftsman, modeling the curves of the female body and capturing the smooth flesh of the young model with the barest means—white and light gray pastel on buff paper. Europe