Blanco handtekeningenblad met vlinders 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this drawing called Blanco handtekeningenblad met vlinders on paper. It's about the size of a large sketchbook page. The drawing is a formal template for signatures, with a decorative flourish. It seems precise, but it’s not just a cold, mechanical exercise, you can see the hand in it. The lines aren’t perfectly straight. The butterfly at the top is stylized with looping lines. I find it fascinating how the artist carefully thought about the balance between functionality and decoration. It reminds me of the work of Hilma af Klint, another artist who combined the precise with the organic, who used templates and processes to bring structure to the image. Just like art, life doesn’t have to be one thing or the other. It’s about the conversation.