Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1904

This letter was written by Pieter Lodewijk Tak in Amsterdam in 1904. Can you imagine Tak sitting at his desk, dipping his pen into ink, carefully forming each word? Look at the loops and lines of the handwriting – each stroke tells a story. It's like watching a painter build up layers of color and texture, except here, the medium is ink, and the canvas is paper. I feel Tak's urgency in those quick, decisive strokes. It's like he's trying to capture a fleeting thought, a spark of inspiration, before it disappears. The letter reminds me of Cy Twombly’s scribbled canvases, where words and gestures blur the line between writing and drawing. It is a reminder that all artists are in conversation with one another. We are constantly borrowing, stealing, and transforming ideas across time. Painting, like writing, is about embracing the messy, the imperfect, and the uncertain.