Brief aan August Allebé

Here’s a letter written in Amsterdam on August 17, 1903, by jonkheer Barthold Willem Floris van Riemsdijk. The penmanship has such a particular character, so full of intention, and yet, it’s also just handwriting, a tool for communicating thoughts. Look at how the ink bleeds a bit into the paper. It’s not pristine; it’s got a body. This little messiness, it brings me closer. There is something so tactile, so human, about that imperfection. See the looping ascenders and descenders of the letters? They create this wonderful rhythm, a visual melody that dances across the page. Each word, each sentence, has its own weight, its own momentum. The words gather into thoughts, the thoughts flow into sentences, it’s a process! This letter reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbled paintings, where writing becomes image and image becomes writing. In both cases, they are showing us that art is always a conversation, a dialogue between the artist, the medium, and the viewer. And that maybe, just maybe, the real meaning lies not in what is said, but in the act of saying itself.