15 Handwritten Letters From Famous Artists

Visual artists are known for their art, not their handwriting, but their penmanship can offer serious insight into the person behind the words. Pen to Paper: Artists’ Handwritten Letters from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art by Mary Savig is proof of that. The book is a collection of handwritten letters from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. It features dispatches from over 50 well-known American artists, from Alexander Calder to Georgia O’Keeffe, along with transcriptions, additional images and artwork, commentary and analysis on what we might be able to glean from their writing style.

You can see a few of the letters below (all images courtesy of Pen to Paper, and the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art), and purchase the anthology from Princeton Architectural Press here or Amazon here.