Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1903 - 1908

Willem Witsen dashed off this letter to Philip Zilcken in 1905 with a pen in Amsterdam. Look at that ink bleeding into the paper, each word laid down with intention, with purpose. I can imagine Witsen, maybe a bit restless, wanting to connect, the words tumbling out of him onto the page. The weight of his thoughts, now captured in these dark, looping strokes. Did he pause between sentences, searching for the right sentiment? Did he hold his breath as he signed off, the nib of his pen dancing across the page? It's like seeing a painter's hand in the thick impasto of a canvas, except here, the medium is language. And yet, isn't writing just another form of mark-making? A gesture frozen in time, echoing the rhythms of thought and feeling. Witsen's writing reminds me that artists are always in conversation across time, inspiring one another's creativity.