Hanschrift betreffende Pieter Christoffel Wonder 1790 - 1852

This is a page of handwritten text and a printed portrait of Pieter Christoffel Wonder, who was born in Utrecht in 1780 and died in 1850. The manuscript below, presumably written by or about Wonder, is the heart of the piece. The artist’s handwriting, the pressure of the pen on paper, and the particular formation of each letter, all invite us to think about his individual process. Writing was central to Wonder’s practice as a painter, as were drawing and printmaking. The portrait itself, with its tightly controlled strokes of ink, echoes the precision of his script. Both the writing and the printed image involved skilled labor, but of very different kinds. The writing is a direct expression of the artist’s hand, while the printed image would have been produced through a mechanised process, requiring collaboration with a printer. Considering this contrast, we can see that even a seemingly straightforward biographical document embodies complex interactions between handcraft and industrial production.