Klein meisje voor plantenkassen in de tuin van landgoed Pauw 1913

This photograph by Geldolph Adriaan Kessler captures a little girl outside greenhouses in the garden of the Pauw estate. I imagine Kessler standing in the garden, adjusting his camera, trying to capture the fleeting innocence of childhood amidst the orderly rows of plant beds. What was he thinking as he framed this shot? Was he aware of composing a scene that blends the domestic with the pastoral, the cultivated with the wild? I bet he noticed how the light filtered through the leaves, casting shadows that danced on the glass of the greenhouses, creating an interplay between light and dark, presence and absence. The little girl, bathed in soft light, seems almost ethereal against the backdrop of the lush garden. It reminds me of the way Berthe Morisot painted figures en plein air, capturing the vibrancy of life in a single gesture. Kessler’s photograph, like Morisot's paintings, invites us to pause, observe, and appreciate the fleeting beauty of a moment. Artists like Kessler and Morisot remind us that art is not just about representation, but also about feeling, atmosphere, and the ephemeral nature of existence.