Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1901 - 1909

This is a letter written in 1901 by Jacobus Hendrikus Speenhoff, probably with a dip pen and ink. I imagine Speenhoff hunched over his desk, carefully forming each letter, pausing to dip the pen again and again. You know, writing by hand creates a completely different connection to language. The rhythm of the hand mirrors the rhythm of thought, and each word becomes a small, deliberate act. I wonder what Speenhoff was thinking as he wrote these lines. Was he nervous, or confident? Did he have to cross things out, and start again? The cursive script flows across the page with an easy grace, but it's also very controlled. Each stroke seems precise and deliberate, forming a direct connection from his mind to the paper, a painterly gesture in itself. You can see the artist’s hand in the careful formation of each letter, a testament to the act of writing itself. Like painting, the writing is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings. It makes me think about how artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity across time.