Aantekening aan Pieter Haverkorn van Rijsewijk after 1889

Richard W. Goulding created this annotated exhibition list, likely in ink, to Pieter Haverkorn van Rijsewijk. The list, neatly divided into columns, itemizes artworks by Willem Maris, Matthijs Maris, and Jacobus Maris in a "Loan Collection: French and Dutch Romanticists" exhibit. The visual structure, with its precise ordering and categorization, imposes a sense of control over the chaotic landscape of artistic creation. The handwritten script adds a personal dimension, reminding us of the intimate dialogue between Goulding and van Rijsewijk. Consider the function of a list itself. As a form, it seeks to distill and classify, imposing a rational framework upon a potentially overwhelming array of information. The materiality of the list - the paper, the ink - suggests a provisionality, a sense of something still in process. This piece challenges notions of artistic meaning as fixed or inherent, instead suggesting that meaning emerges through acts of categorization, annotation, and interpretation. In its careful arrangement and explicit ordering, it posits that understanding art is as much about structure as it is about individual expression.