Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1898

This is a letter to Philip Zilcken created in 1890 in The Hague by Paul du Rieu. The texture of the paper, aged and worn, immediately suggests the passage of time. The composition is dominated by the flow of handwriting, which, in its elegant loops and curves, creates a dynamic interplay between the written word and the visual form. Du Rieu’s handwriting functions almost as an abstract expression, where the legibility of the words is secondary to the aesthetic rhythm they create across the page. The script challenges our conventional understanding of written communication, pushing it towards a form of artistic expression. The letter prompts us to reconsider the act of writing and reading, and the relationship between text and image, information and aesthetics. The formal qualities of this letter—the texture, the composition, and the calligraphic lines—invite us to consider how even everyday objects can operate within a field of artistic and cultural signification.