Brief aan August Allebé Possibly 1917 - 1919

Curator: At first glance, it reminds me of parchment, fragile with time. Editor: Well, you’ve keyed right into it. What we have here is "Brief aan August Allebé" or "Letter to August Allebé," tentatively dated from 1917 to 1919, by Jan Veth. The artwork consists of ink on paper, using a pen as the implement. Curator: So, not a portrait in the strictest sense, more an artifact of correspondence? I imagine, the act of communication becomes the focal point. A portrait not of the face, but the mind perhaps. Editor: Precisely. Consider what a letter signifies. The embodied voice of the writer conveyed across distance and time. What stories, urgencies, consolations were exchanged in the lines traced by Veth? Curator: Letters hold immense psychological power, you know? They are these physical manifestations of thoughts, feelings—proof someone was thinking of you enough to record that for posterity. They echo even louder because handwriting is unique like a fingerprint. Editor: And we bring so many expectations and habits with reading a letter! A different pace than usual writing...a casual unfolding—the scent of old paper is thick with stories! Curator: It certainly makes me ponder the role of written communication. Letters now seem artifacts when so much is instant and ephemeral, their significance deepened. The digital is democratic, but what about personal touch and presence? Do digital equivalents like emails possess a unique gravity like letters of this time period do? Editor: This image calls upon our collective memory. Before instantaneous global connection, communication meant patiently waiting—investing meaning into the written word as almost a sacred form. There is almost ritual and intimacy here. Curator: It certainly highlights how drastically our relationship with communication and the creation and transfer of thought has evolved. A simple drawing made using pen and ink on paper encapsulates our deep roots, with profound reverberations that last in collective human history. Editor: It seems like so little on first pass—just writing on a page—but seeing it prompts an explosion of possibilities. What stories live in here—the stories of Veth, of Allebé, or of all of us who've read or sent letters with trembling fingers.