Rivier lopend door het dal van een bebosd berglandschap. met over de rivier een loopbrug. c. 1903

This is a photograph of a river running through a wooded landscape, with a footbridge crossing the river, by Frits Freerks Fontein Fz. The image has a restrained tonal palette. The details are soft, so the whole thing has a dreamy, indistinct quality. The water looks almost like ground, and the ground looks like water. The bridge, smack dab in the middle, is the only hard line, but it's still vague. You can sense the trees either side of the river. It’s like the artist’s whole gesture is to create a kind of atmosphere or mood. Looking at it, I'm reminded of the work of Camille Corot, who used a similar hazy, impressionistic style to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere in his landscapes. Like Corot, Fontein seems less interested in capturing the specific details of the scene and more in creating a feeling. There are no fixed or definitive meanings here, just a kind of poetic ambiguity.