Ontwerp voor een apothekersetiket voor slemstroop 1931

This is Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries’s design for an apothecary label, made with pencil and crayon. What strikes me is the quietness of the palette. The restrained use of red crayon against the off-white of the paper feels so Dutch; it's like peering into a Vermeer. You can almost feel the grain of the paper, the slight drag of the crayon, and the artist’s hand moving slowly, carefully, across the surface. The thinness of the lines and the transparency of the colors suggest a process of layering and refinement, where each mark is considered and deliberate. Look at the decorative corner motifs: that little dark infill, like ink, anchoring the red shapes. This piece reminds me a bit of the graphic work of Paul Klee, or even some folk art I have seen - there's a shared simplicity, a commitment to form and function over flashy display. Like all good art, it speaks to a fundamental human need for order, beauty, and meaning in the everyday.