Brief aan Andries Bonger before 1907

Here’s a letter Emile Bernard wrote to Andries Bonger, and it’s so interesting to see the artist's hand, his process, laid bare like this. The page has a lovely warm tone, the ink a delicate brown, full of movement as he dashes across the page. You can see how the words are formed, the pressure he puts on the nib of his pen, the way it splays and catches, a dance between intention and accident. There’s such fluidity here, a real sense of thought in motion. The way his lines cross each other, almost like a sketch, makes me think of Cy Twombly’s scrawls, and how they embrace imperfection. It's like he's thinking aloud, the words tumbling out in a rush. It reminds me that art isn't just about the finished product, it’s about the messy, imperfect, beautiful process of creation.