Ex libris van P.H. Burgers 1916

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this bookplate, Ex libris van P.H. Burgers, sometime in the early 20th century. It’s tiny, only a few inches in either direction! The image shows a person urging on an ox which is pulling a plough, but all rendered in tones of sombre grey. The density of the lines in such a small space, and the darkness of the palette gives it a very serious feeling. It feels like a heavy, laboured process, but somehow satisfying. I keep thinking about the idea of a ‘mark’. What counts as a mark and how much work do you have to do before you can consider yourself an artist? Look at that ox, the dark, resolute mass, it looks like something Marsden Hartley might have painted. Perhaps Roland Holst was looking at illuminated manuscripts? What is clear, is that art never exists in a vacuum, each work speaks to others across time.