Getal 12 1904

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this small artwork called 'Getal 12' with ink, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. There's a graphic, illustrative boldness here, with this black numeral on a white ground, like a sign, or a poster. What was De Vries thinking when he made this? I see the number 12, but there are other things going on. The artist has filled the negative space with decorative flourishes, swirling curves and dotted infills—it’s an exuberant take on the possibilities of embellishment. The artist is working within the formal language of Art Nouveau, which involved the application of ornament to objects and surfaces. Artists were unafraid to mix type and image, challenging conventional distinctions between fine and applied art. That little curl at the end of the '2' speaks to the artist's imagination, which reminds me of Hilma af Klint's numerical series and her esoteric symbolism. I imagine artists like De Vries and Klint must have been in an intense dialogue, maybe even dreaming up new alphabets together, through which they could expand the boundaries of expression.