Prentbriefkaart aan Andries Bonger before 1925

This postcard to Andries Bonger, by Emile Bernard, shows a loose, flowing script. Look at how the writing becomes the image itself. Bernard uses brown ink that bleeds slightly into the paper, creating soft edges. It's not about precision; it's about the movement of the hand, the pressure on the pen, and the way the ink responds to the surface. It is like each word has it's own aura. The lines dance and loop, a kind of choreography of thought. See how the address is written, notice how the Amsterdam is underlined with two very confident strokes? You can imagine Bernard, pen in hand, deep in thought, sharing a piece of himself with a friend. There's a sense of immediacy here, a direct connection between the artist's mind and the viewer. The stamps in the corner sit next to the lettering and add another layer to the image, echoing the blue of the ink. This postcard reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, whose work also celebrates the gestural and the imperfect. Like Twombly, Bernard invites us to embrace the beauty of the mark, to see the potential for expression in the simplest of gestures.