Brief aan Pieter Haverkorn van Rijsewijk Possibly 1900 - 1902

Jozef Israëls made this letter to Pieter Haverkorn van Rijsewijk with ink on paper. I love the intimate scale and how the artist has put his own personal thoughts down in a gestural handwritten way. I can imagine him sitting at his desk thinking about what he's going to say before he says it. He's really going for it here, filling the space with his thoughts and ideas. I can almost see the scratching of the nib as he puts pen to paper. There is a feeling of great care and attention in the construction of each word. The shapes dance around the page, the lines are clear but not overly precise; it's a great way to express feeling. It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s scribbled paintings, a kind of writing-as-drawing, but equally it has the visual weight of speech. For me, this letter shows how creativity is a process of exchange between artists, who find inspiration in each other's work across time.