Brief aan Philip Zilcken 1872 - 1930

Barbara Elisabeth van Houten made this letter with pen and paper at an unknown date. The hand-written marks feel more real than anything printed, right? I can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page. Imagine Elisabeth hunched over a desk, maybe with a cup of tea getting cold beside her. There’s something very tactile about the looping strokes, the way each character flows into the next. It's easy to imagine her pauses for thought, the little skips and jumps of the pen. The gentle curves and delicate strokes remind me of Cy Twombly's drawings, which were like sculptures of thought. Letters, like paintings, are intimate gestures that create a space to think and feel. Elisabeth is in conversation with Philip Zilcken, but, like painters, she is also in conversation with herself.