Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1918

This handwritten letter to Bear Zilcken was written in Leiden in 1918 by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje. I imagine Hurgronje, carefully choosing his words, each letter formed with intention. The ink, slightly faded now, suggests time and history. The letters almost seem to dance across the page, each word a deliberate step in a carefully choreographed thought. The texture of the paper, aged and delicate, evokes a sense of the past. It reminds me of Cy Twombly and his calligraphic marks, each stroke carrying layers of meaning and emotion. I wonder what Hurgronje was thinking as he penned this letter. Was he contemplative, urgent, or perhaps simply lost in thought? What would it have been like to be Zilcken receiving it? Each stroke, each word, a testament to the ongoing conversation between artists across time. The act of writing becomes a form of embodied expression.