Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1912

This is a postcard to Philip Zilcken, by Octave Maus. It's a real working object, a posted letter, and you get a feeling for how these forms of communication operated. The marks are ephemeral, the stamps and seals are very material things, but the address is written in this gorgeous faded ink. It makes me think of Cy Twombly and his love of handwriting, the way he'd find such beauty in the everyday. I love the smeared quality of the ink, the way it catches the light and throws these soft shadows. It's almost like a watercolor, and the blotches speak to the physical action of writing. I want to know what sort of nib he was using, and whether he took care of his pens, or if it was just a tool to him. Maus was a contemporary of artists like James Ensor, so maybe he was aware of how expressive even a simple address could be. It certainly makes you wonder what the letter inside said, doesn't it?