Briefkaart aan Saskia Delprat-Veth Possibly 1922 - 1924

Curator: This work, currently held at the Rijksmuseum, is a vintage postcard by Isaac Israels titled 'Briefkaart aan Saskia Delprat-Veth.' Dating roughly from 1922 to 1924, it's a delightful little concoction of drawing, print, textile impressions on paper, using ink, with that signature touch of modernism. Editor: Hmm, intimate and immediate are the first words that jump to mind. Seeing this, it feels like uncovering a fragment of a private conversation—a secret note passed during history class! It is hard not to notice that these address lines seem almost choreographed, you know? Curator: Exactly! Israels wasn't just painting pretty pictures; he was capturing moments in transit, quite literally. This postcard—think of it as an Instagram of the 1920s—becomes a vessel. It takes on meaning even before any personal message. Editor: You see the postmarks obscuring the postage stamps? The act of sealing with those graphic markers, canceling the original image; its fascinating— a real symbol of how bureaucracy and communication become intertwined, defacing even. But is that address a real place or perhaps one crafted by Israels? Curator: Well, delving into the historical context, Welttevreden, the final place on the address, now that's modern Jakarta; and Pegangsaan then was clearly a known area. But the rest? We are not so sure. What I find compelling is how Israels used these everyday materials, paper, ink, these tiny fragments really, to convey such immediacy, blurring those lines between the formal and the personal. He elevates what others might have considered trivial. Editor: The crown at the top left? What does this evoke? Almost a mark of state, like a warrant of approval. How the image is validated—but from whose authority? In what seems ephemeral like a postcard, so much significance is hidden! It reminds us about history's intricate traces. What this image preserves; this moment of being in-between. Curator: Agreed! It's not merely about what is represented on the surface, but about what lingers beneath—echoes of colonial histories, evolving landscapes, whispers from lives once lived—forever captured on this tiny scrap of paper. Editor: This artwork makes one reflect that images outlive the sender and the receiver and everything that once happened is now forever frozen within. So the next time I am about to discard that old unwanted birthday card, perhaps I won't. Who knows, it might hold more than I ever thought.