Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1893

Editor: Here we have "Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken," dating from before 1893, now housed in the Rijksmuseum. It looks like ink on paper, a simple postcard, really. It’s the handwriting that grabs me – the kind you just don't see anymore. What stands out to you in this piece? Curator: Handwriting, yes! A lost art, full of personality. To me, this card is like peeking through a time portal. Look closely at the postmarks; they tell us the card was sent in March of '93. Imagine the person who penned these words, the hand that moved so deliberately. Does the looping script suggest anything about their character to you? Perhaps the care they took? Editor: Definitely meticulous, careful. It’s addressed to “Ch. Zilcken,” and labels him “Artiste peintre." It seems so much more personal than an email could ever be. I mean, someone had to physically carry this. Curator: Exactly. Consider the intimacy – a direct line between two artists, thoughts shared on a simple card across distance. It makes you wonder what the artistic discourse was, what they valued...do you see the faint, almost ghost-like quality to it, adding a layer of nostalgia? Editor: Yeah, it's really something. Thinking about it that way, the simplicity is deceiving; there's so much embedded in this small object. The past made present. Curator: Precisely! And in that sense it feels like we, too, have shared something across time by observing it.