Brief aan Willem Bogtman Possibly 1931 - 1937

This letter to Willem Bogtman was written in pen and ink in 1931 by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst, and you can feel Holst’s hand moving across the page, the ink flowing, maybe with a slight scratchiness. I imagine Holst pausing, considering each word, each line, the nib of his pen occasionally catching on the paper's surface. You can almost hear the quiet scratching. It’s a very intimate way to communicate, right? Like a direct line from his brain to ours. It reminds me that writing, like painting, can be a very embodied process. The texture of the paper, the color of the ink, the pressure of the pen – it all adds up. Holst was a Dutch artist known for his social-realist symbolism, and this letter is a slice of his life, his thoughts, his connections. It makes you think about how artists are always in conversation, even across time, inspiring each other. It shows how creative expression is ambiguous, with many possible meanings instead of one fixed one.