Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1895

Editor: This is a piece called "Brief aan Philip Zilcken," or "Letter to Philip Zilcken," believed to be from 1895, created by Isabella Murray Mowat Angus. It’s ink on paper, and the text itself feels quite intimate, almost like eavesdropping on a private conversation. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This drawing, seemingly a simple letter, speaks volumes about the role of women artists in the late 19th century and their complex navigation of artistic circles. The act of writing, particularly a letter, was often a socially acceptable form of expression for women. How might this correspondence serve as a space where Angus could assert her artistic voice, perhaps even negotiate her position within a male-dominated art world, even if subtly? Consider also how handwriting itself, in its individuality and expressiveness, functioned as a gendered marker, a space of feminine expression in contrast to the rigid structures of academic art. Editor: That’s fascinating, thinking about it as a negotiation! The flowing script, it's so personal, not at all like printed text. Curator: Exactly! And given the context, the date “6 Nov. 95,” who was Philip Zilcken, and what kind of artistic connections and exchanges can we surmise happened between them? Can this piece offer any clues to those relationships and the artist’s influences? It's also key to consider this artist as an Activist in her time and space: can you find indications of that here? Editor: Now I'm wondering what else Angus might have created and where else she pushed those boundaries. Curator: Precisely. We often overlook these ‘minor’ forms of art, these snippets of daily life, in favour of grand narratives. But within them, these artists negotiated and left traces of their existences. Now how can we use them to build our understandings? Editor: I will be sure to keep these in mind going forward. This has been such a different perspective than I usually think about. Thank you!