Briefkaart aan Willem Bogtman Possibly 1937

Henriëtte Roland Holst-van der Schalk penned this postcard to Willem Bogtman, likely using a fountain pen with dark ink to create those looping, elegant lines. I wonder what the urgency was, what she needed to communicate so quickly and efficiently? The lines feel almost performative, a dance of thought and gesture across the paper. You can see a certain impatience in the way the address is scrawled, a need to get the message out, but also a kind of formal grace in the practiced loops of the handwriting. I can imagine her, maybe sitting at a desk, the pen scratching lightly as she forms each letter, each word a step in a carefully considered conversation. Maybe this postcard was just one small part of a larger exchange of ideas and thoughts. It is beautiful to imagine Henriëtte in conversation with her peers.