Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1929

This is a letter to Philip Zilcken, written by Alphonse Stengelin in 1929. Look at the way Stengelin’s handwriting dances across the page. Each word feels like a little sketch, full of loops and flourishes. It reminds me that writing, like drawing, is a physical act. The ink, a faded sepia, gives the whole thing a ghostly feel. You can almost see the ghost of his hand moving across the paper, the pressure of the pen, the speed of his thoughts. I love how the lines sometimes thicken, like a bold stroke in a drawing, and sometimes fade away to almost nothing, like a whispered secret. Notice the date at the top, how it swoops down and curls back up. It’s like a little signature, a personal stamp. This letter, with its blend of precision and looseness, reminds me of the drawings of Cy Twombly. Both Stengelin and Twombly invite us to see the beauty in the imperfect, the unplanned, and the deeply personal. Art as a conversation, a way of reaching out across time and space.