Brief aan Andries Bonger before 1917

This is a letter by Emile Bernard, made with pen on paper. It's all handwriting—a dense network of marks and loops, like a field of wild grass bending in the wind. I imagine Bernard hunched over his desk, pen in hand, pouring his thoughts onto the page. Maybe he paused, mid-sentence, to consider the weight of his words, or the slant of his script, letting his feelings bleed through the ink. There’s a rhythm to the handwriting that I can feel—a sense of urgency and intimacy, of sharing something deeply personal. The blue ink stands out against the off-white paper, making the words seem alive, as though they're jumping off the page, eager to be read. Artists are always having a conversation, even if they are long gone, passing ideas down through time. It reminds me that painting, like writing, is really just a form of thinking.