Schetsboek met 49 bladen c. 1884 - 1891

Here we see Willem Witsen's sketchbook with 49 pages, an intimate object whose materiality and structure invite us into the artist's world. The cover, a muted expanse of neutral tones, is marked by subtle imperfections and faint traces, creating a visual field that balances between emptiness and potential. The sketchbook, in its objecthood, presents a fascinating tension. The book's scale and tactile quality invite interaction. Its function suggests a private space for exploration, yet its presentation in a museum transforms it into a public artifact. Witsen's sketchbook cover plays on ideas of absence and presence. The blank surface can be read as a signifier, ready to be inscribed with meaning, while the faint marks disrupt the purity of the surface, reminding us of the passage of time. Its aesthetic lies in the interplay between the deliberate and the accidental. The sketchbook cover becomes a reflection on the nature of art itself, a continuous process of creation and interpretation.