Brief aan Frans Buffa Possibly 1877 - 1879

This is Jozef Israëls's 'Brief aan Frans Buffa', held in the Rijksmuseum. It's an intriguing piece made from paper and ink, where the delicate script and the material's subtle discolorations immediately draw your eye. The composition is dominated by the artist's handwriting, a series of lines creating a visual texture across the surface. These lines vary in weight and direction, building a formal structure that invites us to consider the act of writing as a physical, expressive gesture. In structuralist terms, the letter becomes a system of signs, where each word and phrase operates within a larger code of communication. But the stains and imperfections disrupt any straightforward reading. They introduce an element of chance and decay, challenging fixed meanings and hinting at the passage of time. The formal qualities of the work—the lines of text and the disruptions of the stains—function as a meditation on how we construct and perceive meaning.