Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1888

Curator: Here we have Willem Bastiaan Tholen’s "Brief aan Jan Veth," possibly from 1888, now residing at the Rijksmuseum. It’s rendered with pen and ink on paper. What strikes you about this piece? Editor: The handwriting is beautiful. There is something intimate and vulnerable about handwritten correspondence displayed so publicly, especially now that such a mode of communicating feels largely obsolete. It looks more like a personal sketchbook page, a practice perhaps, than a carefully crafted work. Curator: Indeed. Consider the act of letter writing at the time. Before widespread telephones, these letters weren't just functional; they carried profound emotional weight and preserved social bonds across distance. You are holding a moment in a relationship between Tholen and Veth, now externalized. The choice of pen and ink enhances that sense of immediacy, of thoughts flowing directly from the mind. Editor: It does speak of immediacy. The text feels raw, unfiltered. Seeing the date scrawled at the top, it’s a window into Tholen’s life, perhaps a hurried note dashed off amidst other activities. I wonder what it reveals about the status of the relationship and about society at large that they exchanged personal notes of this kind, and about what sort of public these private thoughts could possibly address. Curator: Exactly, it invites consideration of the institutional practice that is collecting personal correspondence and transforming such ephemera into works of art for a vast museum-going public. This letter almost seems like an exercise in hand-drawn type. I find myself reflecting on cultural memory, asking, what feelings do handwritten letters evoke in the digital age, how have they transformed in popular consciousness, what sentiments did people share back then? Editor: I’m moved by this idea of accessing emotions embedded in marks on paper, it makes this artifact particularly impactful. It’s more than just art history; it's like witnessing a tangible piece of social interaction. Curator: Well said. This little piece definitely provokes bigger thoughts than its scale suggests. Editor: I agree, I found it rewarding to consider how handwriting practices enter into larger societal structures.