Brief aan Arnoldus Lamme Possibly 1807 - 1815

Curator: We're looking at "Brief aan Arnoldus Lamme," a letter created by Abraham Teerlink. It's estimated to have been made sometime between 1807 and 1815, currently residing in the Rijksmuseum. The medium is pen and ink on paper. What's your first impression? Editor: My immediate thought is intimacy. It feels so personal. It's incredible how a simple handwritten letter can still exude such character and, frankly, vulnerability across centuries. The hand-lettering itself is compelling. Curator: The Romanticism of the period is definitely on display. Teerlink's artistic style—influenced, no doubt, by the Dutch Golden Age that preceded him—seeks a way to represent subjective experience, emotions. The very act of putting pen to paper, drafting thoughts into written form… It creates such an intense bond across time. Editor: And let’s consider that paper, the ink itself. What sort of quills was he using? What was the process for preparing the ink? These physical choices speak volumes about his artistic practice and how labor-intensive correspondence must have been. He mentions Hobbema and copying from life—materials really dictated ways of seeing at this time. Curator: He invokes other artists too, praising some old Dutch masters while not quite favoring contemporary painters; in fact, he discusses “fine art versus portraits,” which suggests to me a wider discourse around art and its various applications during the Romanticism era, the hierarchies. We sense the human behind the words, engaging with cultural and aesthetic currents. Editor: Precisely. And look at how close the words are on the page, very efficient, like precious use of a raw material in a period where materiality had its own cultural value; nothing was ever wasted. Paper wasn’t cheap. It speaks to social and material constraints too. Curator: I agree entirely; we discern emotional connection intertwined with socio-economic realities embedded directly on paper, connecting artmaking and culture directly. Editor: It prompts you to reflect on modern communication now in contrast to that slower more thoughtful method. Teerlink is giving so much of himself within this artifact of human activity. Curator: Indeed, examining an artifact, in this way we realize the continuity of thought in time: ideas about self-expression, creativity, craft persist as elements in collective memory through written forms. Editor: Looking closely at materiality invites thinking about how artwork comes into existence in connection to society and its values and in conjunction to individual intentions.