Schetsboek met 25 bladen c. 1888s

This is a sketchbook with 25 pages, made by Willem Witsen. Witsen lived through a time of significant social change in the Netherlands, with growing industrialization and urbanization impacting traditional ways of life. As an artist, he was deeply invested in capturing the changing urban landscape and the lives of ordinary people. Sketchbooks are intimate objects. They offer a direct connection to the artist's process, revealing the evolution of ideas, experimentation with different techniques, and the raw, unfiltered expression of their vision. The stains and marks visible on the cover tell a silent story of the artist's interaction with this object over time, of a life lived. As you reflect on this object, think about the interplay between the personal and the historical, and how the artist's identity and experiences shaped their creative output.