Brief aan de heer Weijmaar 1824 - 1880

Raden Saleh wrote this letter to Mr. Weijmaar in the 19th century with ink on paper. The most striking quality is the physical act of inscription—the pressure of the nib on the page, the way the ink bleeds into the fibers, and the rhythm of the handwriting itself. Think about the labor involved. Not just Saleh's own time and effort, but also the production of the paper, the harvesting of materials, and the grinding and mixing of pigments to create the ink. All of this involved a network of labor, connecting Saleh to wider social and economic structures. The letter is more than just words. It is a material record of a specific moment in time, imbued with the social relations of its production. By attending to these qualities, we can understand the letter as a complex object, defying any simple distinction between art and craft.