Brief aan Andries Bonger before 1908

This letter to Andries Bonger was written by Emile Bernard, it’s undated but it was written in ink. The handwriting is tight and dense; there's an urgency to it, but also a formal quality. It’s like Bernard is trying to control the emotion, but the ink bleeds and pools in places, betraying the intensity beneath. The letter, with its physical texture and handwritten script, becomes a kind of emotional landscape. There's a passage where Bernard talks about the 'magnificent golden hair' I wonder if this is a memory or perhaps a metaphor for something more abstract – like the enduring legacy of artistic expression or perhaps a biblical reference. Bernard’s letters remind me of Van Gogh’s, full of raw emotion and a desperate need for connection. And maybe that's what art is, in the end – a letter sent out into the world, hoping to find a reader.