Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1907 - 1929

This is a letter written in 1907 by Cornelis Adrianus Pekelharing, a Dutch professor of physiology at Utrecht University, to Jan Veth, an artist, art critic, and fellow intellectual. The letter is a handwritten note, and its form gives us insight into the social and intellectual networks of the Dutch art world at the turn of the century. The content of the letter concerns a request to Pekelharing to send a portrait for the new library of the laboratory, likely his own, and reflects the institutional context of artistic production. The letter also speaks to a sense of civic engagement with the cultural institutions of the Netherlands. Historians of art and culture would consult archives of letters and documents from the period to understand the social and intellectual life of the time. By examining these kinds of records, we come to see the ways art is embedded in everyday life.