Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1923 - 1927

This letter, penned by Alphonse Stengelin on April 27, 1927, is a flurry of cursive energy across the page. I imagine Stengelin hunched over his desk, the nib of his pen scratching and dancing as he communicates to a friend. You get a real sense of the hand in this. The pressure varies, the lines waver, and the ink pools and thins, creating a visual rhythm. It’s like a little performance, a dance of thought unfolding in real time. I can imagine him pausing, maybe mid-sentence, considering the right turn of phrase. The letter form is a conversation across time, echoing the exchanges between painters. Think of Van Gogh writing to his brother Theo, or Delacroix filling his journals with observations. Each mark, each word, carries not just information but the artist’s very breath, their presence. It's a reminder that art, in all its forms, is an embodied act, a human connection made visible.