Ontwerp voor een diploma van de Vereniging ter Bevordering van de Belangen des Boekhandels 1914

This is a draft for a diploma made by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries, probably with ink on paper. The lettering looks so precise, like a blueprint or an architectural plan, yet the handwritten quality gives it a personal touch, right? It’s fascinating how the blue ink pops against the off-white paper. The texture of the paper seems smooth, almost like vellum. If you look closely at the handwritten text, you can see the pressure of the pen, how it varies, thick and thin, giving a rhythm to the words. The ‘J.G. Tadema en J.L. Tadema’ really grabs my attention. It’s bolder, more emphasized, like a signature or a key to the whole thing. This piece reminds me a bit of Hilma af Klint's work, with that sense of hidden knowledge and symbolic language. It’s like a secret code waiting to be deciphered. Art, like language, is always a conversation, a back-and-forth, a layering of meanings and interpretations.