Ontwerp voor ex libris van Carel Lion Cachet 1874 - 1945

This is a design for a bookplate by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, an artist working in the late 19th and early 20th century. You can see the pencil marks, the grid, the way the forms emerge hesitantly. What a commitment to the old world of books and art! I think about the process of making this design. Cachet had to consider the object it was destined for. A bookplate is functional, it indicates ownership, and that changes its meaning. You look at that "C", the symmetry of the forms, the way it creates a portal, a passage. It is a symbol but is also suggestive of a particular person. I imagine Cachet sitting at his desk, sketching, erasing, refining. There is a real feeling of process. Artists are always in conversation with each other across time, inspiring one another's creativity. The act of painting and drawing is an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.