Omslag bij brieven van Matthijs Maris aan Felix Stone Moscheles c. 1890 - 1920

This is a cover for letters written by Matthijs Maris to Felix Stone Moscheles. And it's so cool, like something unearthed, showing its age with dignity. I'm really drawn to this combination of craft and care, of course. Envision someone, probably anonymous, meticulously tooling the leather, pressing in those sinuous lines, and making this cool Art Nouveau design in the corner with these metallic foils. What were they thinking about while they pressed the decoration? You can feel the maker’s hand. It makes me think about handwriting and the lost art of letter writing. Each stroke is a connection to another person across distance and time. It’s so lovely that even after all this time, we can still get a sense of the humanity embedded in the object. It reminds me that artists are always in conversation, riffing off each other's ideas and adding their own voices to the mix.