Brief aan Jan Veth Possibly 1924

This is "Brief aan Jan Veth," or "Letter to Jan Veth," written in 1924 by Karel Johan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm. It's literally made of ink and paper and time, an intimate little thought travelling across space. I love seeing the hand in things. The pressure of the pen on the page. See how the ink pools and thickens on some of the downstrokes, then lightens as the pen moves quickly upward. It's almost like a dance. You can practically feel his hand moving across the page, thinking, pausing, then moving on. It reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly's paintings, not because they look alike, but because of that feeling of gesture and movement. Both capture the ephemerality of thought, the way ideas come and go, solidify and then dissolve again. It's like looking at a record of someone thinking, one mark at a time. It’s not about perfection. It's about capturing the moment.