Brief aan Jan Veth 1870 - 1925

Curator: Well, hello! Standing here before us is Eduard Karsen's "Brief aan Jan Veth," believed to have been created between 1870 and 1925. Editor: There’s something inherently intimate about looking at someone's handwritten note, especially one drafted in ink on paper such as this. It feels fragile, personal. Do you agree? Curator: Absolutely. I see this kind of graphic language as evidence of deep connection. The grid of the paper reminds me of architectural blueprints – underlying the apparent chaos of expression, there's this structure holding it together, like hidden support beams within an intimate setting. Editor: Hidden. Yes, I think so. There are levels to explore here, don't you think? The way the calligraphy varies, speeding up or slowing down, mirroring a mind in motion, yet the lines so very ordered across the canvas? That gives me a sense of stability to stand alongside all of the feeling! It is balanced! I wonder where the artist sees order when looking at this very personal composition... Curator: Precisely! Consider the content; this work invites the viewer into the intimate exchange between Karsen and Veth, revealing the intimacy of the communication that passed between artists and other important people in their lives. These personal writings preserve that fleeting history. And consider the nature of portraiture – what’s it like to “sit” for a letter? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it like that before; the idea that these letters act as mirrors, or, that a handwritten missive IS, in its very nature, an attempt to capture oneself and the very nature of life, even as it flits away is lovely! So is every preserved word on every piece of captured correspondence a portrait of time passed, captured, rendered stable? It’s a hopeful message, that’s certain. Curator: Yes, exactly, these works of Intimism offer fleeting access to memories. We find echoes of these themes of time, recollection, and, well, portraiture everywhere, across generations, and, sometimes, between great minds like that of Veth and Karsen! Editor: An excellent find. To see it again, a simple missive – the beginning and the end… time captured in art! Wonderful.