Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1905

This letter to Philip Zilcken was written in 1905 by Willy Sluiter. Look at this handwriting! I love to think about handwriting as a kind of drawing. Each letter is a gesture, a little abstract shape, repeated and varied to create whole words. The ink is dark and consistent, and the pressure seems even. I can just imagine Sluiter carefully forming each word, the pen gliding across the page. Notice how the lines curve and loop, creating a rhythmic pattern that almost dances across the page. It’s like a visual melody. Thinking about it this way makes me think of Cy Twombly, who made these wild, scribbly paintings that were almost like handwriting blown up to a huge scale. Both Sluiter and Twombly use the simple act of mark-making to create something beautiful, expressive, and deeply personal. And that’s something that always resonates with me.