Art postcard sanguine portrait young girl - sent Valkenburg to Bad Nauheim, 1927

Art postcard with a reproduction of a young girl's portrait in sanguine style, printed in red-brown on warm ochre card. The image depicts a young girl with loose curly hair and a bow, rendered in the soft, sketchy line of the late Symbolist or Pre-Raphaelite drawing tradition. The card is published under number 199 and dates stylistically to ca. 1900-1910. The reverse bears a Dutch 10 cent stamp with the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina and the Valkenburg postmark, 21 June 1927.

The card was sent from Valkenburg by Ges. Smit to Mejuffrouw Joh. Lumen, staying at the Park Hotel in Bad Nauheim. The sender thanks the recipient for her greeting from Frankfurt and writes with relief that the recipient's father — apparently long unwell — is now doing better: "Waarlijk een welverdiende bekroning op je liefdevolle verzorging" (Truly a well-deserved reward for your loving care). Bad Nauheim as a spa town and the references to Frankfurt and Valkenburg sketch a milieu of prosperous Dutch travellers who frequented the Rhine region in the 1920s for health and leisure.