Isabel Wachenheimer met pluche beesten bij een open raam, juni 1934 1934 - 1936

This photograph of Isabel Wachenheimer with stuffed animals by an open window was taken in June 1934. The anonymous photographer must have seen something in the moment, a kind of compositional challenge, perhaps in the tonal range or the domestic tension between a child, her toys, and the world outside. The surface texture of the photograph, with its grainy quality, seems to emphasize the sense of a specific time and place. There’s a lot of visual information packed into this little black and white image. The details of the corrugated window ledge, the brickwork outside. But the open window, which frames the girl and her plush companions, also cuts them off from a deeper view. The work of someone like, say, Vilhelm Hammershøi comes to mind, with its interest in interiority, and the use of light to shape and define pictorial space. This is art as an ongoing conversation. There's a feeling of ambiguity here, and an openness to interpretation, that invites us to make our own story from the arrangement of forms.