Ontwerpen voor een vignet 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made these vignette designs on paper, and I can imagine him working through different variations, maybe for a bookplate or a logo. The marks are tentative, searching—you can almost see the artist thinking aloud with his pencil. There's a real charm in these simple black lines, the way they curve and meet, suggesting a kind of stylized plant form, or maybe even a face in the top design. It reminds me of calligraphy, but with a playful, almost surreal twist. I think of artists like Hilma af Klint, also exploring abstract forms around the same time, trying to capture something beyond the visible world. It makes me wonder what De Vries was trying to communicate with these enigmatic little drawings, and how they might speak to us today. It’s like a little puzzle, inviting us to play along and find our own meanings.