Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1921 - 1923

This is a letter written by George Hendrik Breitner to Jan Veth. The handwritten text, penned in dark ink on lined paper, creates a visual texture that invites us to consider the intimate nature of communication. The lines of text, uniform and regimented, establish a structure that is then disrupted by the fluid, organic forms of the handwriting. Breitner’s script, with its varying pressure and rhythm, brings an expressive quality to the page. Note the letter forms; they lean and loop, creating a sense of movement and revealing the artist's hand and state of mind. The structure of language itself, visible yet indecipherable to many viewers, becomes a pattern, a form of abstract expression. This interplay between order and disorder, legibility and illegibility, highlights how Breitner uses the very materiality of writing to convey meaning and emotion.