Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1908 - 1919

This letter to Philip Zilcken, written by Willem Byvanck in Paris in 1908, is a painting in language. I can imagine Byvanck’s hand moving across the page, each word a stroke, a delicate dance between thought and expression. I wonder what he was thinking as he wrote. There's a formality to the handwriting, but there's also an urgency, a desire to communicate something important. The ink is the color of twilight, and the paper has aged like a watercolor left in the sun. Looking at this letter reminds me that artists are always in conversation with each other. Byvanck is corresponding with Zilcken, sharing ideas, making plans, just as painters share ideas through their work. Every stroke of the brush, every word on the page, is a response to something that came before, and an invitation to something new.