Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1914

This letter to Philip Zilcken was made with ink on paper by Isaac Israels. I imagine Israels hunched over his desk in London, maybe on a cold February day, scribbling away with a fountain pen. The ink sort of bleeds into the paper creating a soft, blurry effect, as if each word is emerging from a fog. The handwriting has a lovely rhythm with the loops and curves of the letters creating a kind of dance across the page, and a certain intimacy, doesn’t it? I can almost feel the scratching of the nib as he forms each letter, rushing, pausing, pressing down, lifting off. Like the feeling of making a drawing, the letter seems to echo his feelings and thinking through the simple act of inscription, mirroring his actions in its very form. The letter connects him to a history of painters writing to each other, sharing ideas, and inspiring each other's work, and perhaps even their ways of thinking, too.