Omslagontwerp voor: Tijdschrift voor boek- en bibliotheekwezen, 1903 1903

This is ‘Omslagontwerp voor: Tijdschrift voor boek- en bibliotheekwezen’, by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made in 1903, presumably as a print. The red lines have a kind of graphic elegance, with a border that feels both ornamental and structured. I imagine the artist designing this, carefully arranging text and images like musical notes on a page. You can feel a lot of the graphic design of the time. I wonder what De Vries was thinking about when he made this. The stylized bird feels like it’s flying directly from Art Nouveau. The open book at the bottom connects to the title; the drawing is a kind of emblem for reading. It reminds me of book covers by artists like Aubrey Beardsley and Jan Toorop, all these artists conversing across time and place, creating an ongoing visual dialogue. The background looks like graph paper, which makes the whole page a kind of experiment.