Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1927

This letter to Philip Zilcken was written in Paris in 1924 by Rose Imel. Look at that looping, swirling script. It’s like each word is a dance move, a gesture made with a pen rather than a brush, but it's still a movement. Imagine Imel there in Paris, maybe in a small, light-filled room, the nib of her pen scratching against the paper. The words tumbling out as she writes to Zilcken about a “chère Steuer” and an “adorable” girl. I wonder what was going through her mind, what sights and sounds of Paris filled her senses as she wrote. What kind of relationship did she have with the recipient? It makes me think about the act of mark-making itself, how each stroke, whether with ink or paint, becomes a record of a moment, a thought, a feeling. This letter, in its own way, is a piece of art—a snapshot of a time, a place, and a relationship, connecting us to Rose Imel and her world.