Brief aan Philip Zilcken before 1898

Jan Toorop created this letter to Philip Zilcken in 1897, composed of ink on paper. Within its lines, beyond the immediate correspondence, lies a catalog of symbols, each carrying echoes from distant times and cultures. Consider, for instance, the mention of "The Sphinx." This mythical creature, a hybrid of human and animal, originated in ancient Egypt and later Greece. It embodies a sense of mystery, guarding secrets of wisdom and posing riddles that demand profound insight. The Sphinx, as a symbol, traverses time. We find it in the art of the Renaissance, in the dreams of the Romantics, and even in the psychoanalytic inquiries of Freud. Its endurance speaks to a collective human fascination with the enigmatic, reflecting our perpetual quest to understand the unknown. Here, Toorop's Sphinx is but one fragment of a broader cultural lexicon, reminding us of the non-linear, cyclical progression of symbols, ever resurfacing, evolving, and taking on new meanings across history.