Brief aan August Allebé Possibly 1903 - 1917

This is a letter to August Allebé, written in 1903 by Barthold Willem Floris van Riemsdijk, in Amsterdam. Look at the dark, looping gestures of the ink! Can you see how the writing almost dances across the page? Each stroke has its own weight and rhythm. I feel like Riemsdijk is pulling me into his world, his thoughts tumbling out like this controlled, yet frantic script. I imagine him hunched over his desk, pen in hand, his mind racing as he tries to find the right words. What did he want to communicate? What was the purpose of this letter? Was it a formal note, or a personal message filled with the writer's own thoughts? The physicality of writing—the pressure of the pen on the page, the way the ink bleeds into the fibers, the way letters connect and diverge—becomes a form of embodied expression, a way of thinking through feeling. Isn't it amazing how a simple letter can hold so much emotion and intention, inviting us into a conversation that spans across time and space?