This photograph, “Ingebruikneming van een winkelpand,” was made anonymously, at an unknown date. The whole image has a beautiful sepia tone. It's quite lovely, if you think about it, how a limited palette encourages us to really tune into the nuances of texture and light. Look at how the light catches the stacked bricks, creating a rhythmic pattern of dark and light. It feels like a rehearsal for something bigger, like a melody waiting for harmony. The palm trees seem to grow out of the building like an extension of the facade. The composition has the quality of folk art. You can also see in it the inspiration for someone like, say, Edward Hopper, who was also taken with the poetry of shop fronts and the urban landscape. Art, like life, is a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas. We see what we need to see.