Brief aan Anna Dorothea Dirks Possibly 1926 - 1927

This letter to Anna Dorothea Dirks was written in Leiden in 1926 by Johan Huizinga, likely with a fountain pen. The ink is a dark grey, which is soft on the eye and seems to float on the page. It feels like I’m peeking in on a very intimate moment, seeing someone else’s thoughts as they flowed onto the page, so to speak. The marks are very consistent, each letter carefully formed. The handwriting feels almost calligraphic. Look at the sweeping curves in the capital letters, and then the gentle loops of the lower-case letters. Everything connects, nothing is rushed, and it all works together. The date is at the bottom left, like a signature on a painting, and the whole letter has a sense of balance and wholeness. It's like watching someone think and feel in real time. Thinking about mark making as communication makes me think of Cy Twombly, another artist who made writing the subject of his art. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, a way of sharing ideas and experiences across time.