Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1907 - 1927

Vittorio Pica, an art critic, created this missive to Philip Zilcken, a painter, sometime around 1890, probably using paper and ink, maybe even a quill! I’m super intrigued by the relationship between a critic and a painter: the play of influence, admiration, even envy. Here, the handwriting in a light greenish ink meanders across the page, punctuated by the severe geometry of the stamp. I wonder if Pica labored over his cursive or if the words flowed easily. Did he consider the materiality of the page itself, the texture and weight of the paper, as part of his message? I can imagine Zilcken receiving this correspondence and turning it over in his hands, the anticipation of the contents mingling with an assessment of Pica’s penmanship. I bet these two were in constant conversation, their ideas bouncing off one another, challenging and inspiring in equal measure. The way artists and critics see each other's work, a dance of perception.