Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1901 - 1914

Here is a letter written by Jan van Oort to Philip Zilcken, in Amsterdam, on the 14th of October 1901. Look at the sweeping lines of the script, it’s like he’s drawing with ink, each stroke full of energy. I can only imagine Van Oort hunched over his desk, the scratch of the nib on paper as he forms each word. There is something so intimate about handwriting, isn’t there? You can almost feel the pressure of his hand, the rhythm of his thoughts flowing onto the page. I wonder what he was like, this Van Oort. Was he a worrier? A dreamer? You can see the influence of the Art Nouveau movement in the letter. It’s all about the line, the curve, the flourish. It reminds me a bit of Aubrey Beardsley, or even some of Gustav Klimt’s drawings. Artists are always borrowing from each other, aren’t they? It's a conversation across time.