Fragment van een achterzijde van een bankbiljet van vijfentwintig gulden 1910

This fragment of a banknote design by Antoon Derkinderen is made with delicate lines on paper. I wonder, what’s it like to be an artist designing money? Did Derkinderen feel the weight of the nation’s economy on his shoulders? I like to think he reveled in the details, carefully crafting the ornate corners and the subtle "25" peeking through. Imagine him sketching these leafy motifs, each stroke a dance between precision and flourish. It's kind of like a painter deciding where to put a dab of color, knowing it will carry the whole painting. The artist would have been thinking about legibility, but also about beauty, about how to make something that feels both trustworthy and inspiring. This fragment, with its unfinished quality, reminds me that art, like money, is always in progress, always circulating, always part of a larger conversation.