Kwitantie voor Willem Bastiaan Tholen Possibly 1889

This receipt, made in Amsterdam in 1889 by Frans Buffa en Zonen, documents a payment made to Willem Bastiaan Tholen. At first glance, it’s just ink on paper, a quotidian record of a financial transaction. Yet, it’s a window into the economic underpinnings of the art world. The elegant script and careful layout speak to the skilled labor involved in producing such documents. Paper itself, though seemingly simple, represents a complex history of production and trade. The receipt acknowledges the exchange of three hundred and seventy-five guldens for ‘free aquarelle’. This suggests the payment was for an unbound watercolor, a medium often associated with spontaneity and ease. However, the receipt reminds us that even the most fluid artistic expressions are entangled with commerce, labor, and material exchange. It challenges our notions of artistic creation, highlighting the economic structures that enable and sustain artistic practice.