Brief aan August Allebé Possibly 1890

Curator: Looking at this piece, I'm immediately struck by the elegance of the script. The flowing lines and the delicate touch of the pen create a sense of intimacy and perhaps a bit of melancholy. Editor: Indeed, there’s a poignant quiet here. The Rijksmuseum holds this drawing, a letter penned around 1890, possibly, by jonkheer Victor Eugène Louis de Stuers. He crafted it using pen and ink on paper, titling it "Brief aan August Allebé," or "Letter to August Allebé." Curator: It feels incredibly personal. Calligraphy often functions that way, doesn’t it? The specific way a word is formed becomes imbued with the personality and intent of the writer. Here, the flourishes and the slight inconsistencies evoke a very human presence. What sort of public role might such an intimate item play in a museum setting? Editor: Well, Stuers was quite influential in establishing museums in the Netherlands. So this isn't just a personal note, it also offers insight into the network of artists and patrons who were shaping Dutch cultural institutions at the time. We see the back channels through which artistic life was developing. Curator: You see it as institutional. I can grant you that but it does offer us, even over a century later, direct insight into his frame of mind, his relationship, and the creative milieu he inhabited. Editor: I would have loved to be on that conversation! Do you think his letter impacted the institutions where August Allebé’s artworks ended up in collections? Curator: What this intimate piece tells us is just one small glimpse into that social framework that we can access today. As you say, very intriguing to have had a seat at the table for that discussion. Editor: Definitely changes the way one understands a public art collection in museums today. Thank you! Curator: Thanks to you too. It’s been enlightening, viewing a piece of correspondence as a document but also, and very vividly, a work of art.