Annotaties c. 1888 - 1891

Willem Witsen made this work, *Annotaties*, on paper with pen and ink. It's not exactly what you'd expect to see hanging on a museum wall. The material is humble – paper, the very stuff of everyday life, inscribed with handwritten notes. The penmanship gives the work its character. The artist clearly wasn't trying to be elegant here. It looks like he was thinking through a problem or trying to quickly record something he didn't want to forget. I see this piece as an insight into the messy, human side of creativity. We tend to think of art as a finished product, a pristine object. But so much labor goes into the making of art that is hidden. By presenting this work in a public collection, we acknowledge the process of trial and error, and that sometimes, the most interesting thing is not the final result, but the record of thinking itself. The significance lies in the artist’s annotations and calculations, the visible labor that we, as viewers, often overlook. This piece pushes us to think about the real work of art, challenging our notions about what really matters.