Brief aan Andries Bonger before 1927

Curator: This drawing, titled "Brief aan Andries Bonger," meaning "Letter to Andries Bonger" in English, was created by Émile Bernard at some point before 1927. Editor: There’s something immediately striking about how intimate this feels—a handwritten note laid bare. The cursive seems to dance across the page, pulling you into its confidence. It feels both personal and…fragile. Curator: Indeed. Bernard composed this missive in ink on paper. The piece speaks to a particularly rich theme of intimacy and is considered a portrait, or more specifically, an example of intimism. We sense that feeling of privileged access you describe. The lines, for example, appear casual, quick, spontaneous. Editor: The way it is unlined and not perfectly formed—but immediate and deeply legible—amplifies this, making me think of the kind of trust that exists between intimates when sharing difficult news. The choice of handwritten correspondence becomes a very conscious choice. This level of tactility highlights the emotional labor involved in writing, making it deeply personal. Curator: Considering that he composed this letter to fellow artist Andries Bonger, we should mention how profoundly art informed Emile's thinking about human psychology. Art had a central and healing power for Bernard—a method of mediating personal relations, as a kind of shared, lived philosophy of life. This, of course, reflects the ethos of his circle, where painting was seen as deeply entangled with feeling and relationships. Editor: It’s poignant, isn’t it? To witness such tangible traces of a conversation long past, still echoing with such emotional resonance across all of this time. Curator: Absolutely. Visual art and correspondence remain central methods of grasping moments that pass—while reminding us that symbols, no matter how personal, resonate outwards in unforeseen ways.