Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1909

This is Jozef Israëls's "Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken" at the Rijksmuseum. The artwork presents us with a plain off-white card, covered in hand-written text and various markings like stamps and seals. The composition is determined by its functionality: text aligned according to the pre-printed lines. The handwriting itself offers a personal, textural contrast to the mechanical printing above. The various stamps— the Dutch coat of arms and the postage stamp—are rigidly geometric, providing a certain structure. This interplay between the organic and geometric forms underscores a central theme in structuralism: the tension between the individual and the system. Here, it is the personal message versus the impersonal postal system. The markings also destabilize meaning. What is meant to ensure clarity and delivery, becomes, over time, an obscuring layer of history. This aligns with post-structuralist thought, as it questions the stability of meaning and emphasizes the role of time. The postcard becomes a palimpsest, a site of layered meanings.