Blanco handtekeningenblad met bladeren 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this Blanco handtekeningenblad met bladeren, or ‘white signature sheet with leaves,’ with what looks like watercolor, and maybe pencil, on paper. There’s something really interesting about the way these leaf and vine motifs bump up against the grid. It’s like de Vries is playing with order and disorder, control and chaos, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, speaks to me! You can almost feel him working through the design, trying to figure out how to make these organic shapes fit into a more rigid structure. The brushwork is so delicate, almost tentative, and the colors are soft and muted. It’s like de Vries wanted to create something beautiful, but without being too precious or sentimental. There's a similar sense of playful experimentation in the work of someone like Paul Klee, where the process is just as important as the final result. It’s a reminder that art is not just about making pretty pictures, but about thinking, feeling, and exploring the world around us.