Brief aan Christiaan Kramm Possibly 1863

This letter was written by Alexander Schaepkens, probably in the mid-19th century. You can immediately tell a lot from the material itself. Look at the fibers of the paper, its slight discoloration. Notice the iron gall ink, made from tannins and iron salts. The writing has a calligraphic quality, but it’s also quite utilitarian. Before industrialization, paper was made by hand, a labour-intensive process. Even ink had to be mixed. The embodied effort is palpable. The letter is addressed to Christiaan Kramm, an artist and architect. Schaepkens praises Kramm’s work, specifically his writing on Dutch and Flemish artists. Letters like this were the social media of their time, a vital tool of networking and knowledge sharing. It reminds us that even seemingly simple documents are products of skilled work, embedded in a web of social relations. It challenges our separation of art history from the history of craft, labor, and everyday life.