Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 108 1888 - 1907

Curator: Right now, we’re looking at a work by Willem Witsen called "Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 108." It dates from around 1888 to 1907 and it's a mixed-media drawing on paper. Editor: My initial impression is... ghostlike. A faded memory, almost, or perhaps a half-formed idea still gestating in the artist's mind. I love how the accidental smudges become part of the story. Curator: Indeed. The "Abklatsch"—transfer—technique he employed suggests a duplication, a copy. But in this case, the copy seems to possess more of a haunting quality than the original could ever aspire to. Consider the broader context: late 19th-century anxieties about originality, reproduction, and the rise of mass media. Editor: Precisely! It feels so fragile and vulnerable. As though Witsen is whispering something about the ephemeral nature of images themselves. Does the imperfection, the fading, become more real than a clean depiction? Curator: The abstraction allows for that kind of reading. One begins to wonder if Witsen embraced accidents in the transfer process. A calculated embrace of the uncontrolled. Or, possibly, how institutions might have collected and contextualized this more than his intention. Editor: And it challenges our assumptions about artistic intention, doesn’t it? Maybe he wasn’t going for "perfection." This delicate trace has so much more soul. I almost feel a sense of melancholy, that the creation carries in it a history of what was. It hints at another artwork that we no longer have access to. Curator: Yes. This work reflects an artistic milieu deeply engaged with notions of transience and the subtle beauty found in decay and replication. Editor: Looking at this drawing reminds me of the joy of finding treasure, in the form of imperfections, and trusting what accidents may unveil to you. Curator: And it’s in that revelation, that shared experience, that we can begin to find connections that have meaning.