Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1900 - 1912

This is a letter Jan Toorop wrote to Philip Zilcken in 1900. I love the idea of a painting as a letter, or vice versa. Think about the intimacy of handwriting. It's like a fingerprint, a direct trace of the artist's hand and mind. I'm getting a sense of Toorop as he rushes to write this note, and it's like I can feel his hand moving across the page. The strokes are so alive, they breathe. I imagine him pausing, thinking, then diving back in, letting the ink flow. Maybe he was thinking about his friend Zilcken, imagining his reaction as he read each word. Maybe he's wondering about the monument to the Belgian poet Georges Rodenbach in Bruges mentioned in the letter? What was it like to see it in person? It makes me think about the letters artists like Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. You sense this urgency in his words, a desire to connect and share his world. It's a reminder that art is not just about the finished product but about the messy, beautiful process of communication and connection.