Kader met bladmotief 1884 - 1952

This is a design for a booklet cover with leaf motifs, made by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries. It's a humble object, really – ink and graphite on paper. Look closely, and you can see how the hand of the artist comes through. The sinuous lines were likely drawn freehand. The leaves themselves are simplified, almost stylized, and repeated to create a rhythmic pattern. This kind of stylized naturalism was very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The black ink gives a stark contrast against the raw paper, creating an arresting, modern image. It’s a reminder that even everyday objects are born of skilled labor and artistic vision. It makes you wonder about the amount of work involved in designing and producing these materials, and about the status of the designers themselves, whose creativity often goes unacknowledged. It challenges our assumptions about what counts as "art" versus "design," and where value truly lies.