Overlijdensbericht aan Nico van Harpen Possibly 1903

This bereavement card to Nico van Harpen, crafted by an anonymous artist, is spare. It resembles an Agnes Martin grid drawing in some ways, but its message is much heavier. I can imagine the artist carefully setting the type, one letter at a time. There's a stillness to the process, a need for precision. I wonder if they were thinking about the person who died, George Jan Hendrik Poggenbeek, and the grief of those left behind, like his widow, G. C. Poggenbeek-Verbeek. Each letter a small act of remembrance. The card is a gesture, not unlike a brushstroke. A way to mark a moment, to honor a life. It’s a reminder that art, like life, is fragile and fleeting. And that even in the face of death, there is still beauty to be found. We are all connected, artist to artist, mourner to mourner, across time and space. It's an ongoing conversation, this dance of life and death, love and loss.