Brief aan Henriette Wilhelmina van Baak en Philip Zilcken Possibly 1922

This letter, penned by Anna Sologoub, likely in the early 20th century, shimmers with the mark-making of ink bleeding into paper. The letter seems to have emerged from her mind in layers, accruing in both legibility and mystery. I can almost feel Sologoub leaning over the paper, her brow furrowed, choosing each word as carefully as she chose the slant of her letters. What was she hoping to convey with each stroke, each flourish? The very act of putting pen to paper becomes a kind of performance, an intimate dance between thought and expression. The varying pressure of the pen against the paper, these aren’t just words; they’re the residue of a lived moment, a fragment of her inner world made visible. And that beautiful script! Calligraphy carries the weight of tradition but is a totally unique expression too, like handwriting. You see how Sologoub relates to others who practice it, across time and space. It reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting, like writing, is a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.