Ondergelopen Seine-oevers, verwoeste bruggen en een hengelaar tijdens overstroming van Parijs 1910 - 1911

G. Dangereux made this photograph of the flooded banks of the Seine, the destroyed bridges, and a fisherman during the Paris flood. It’s a very atmospheric image, a monochromatic palette of grey and brown—a city in crisis. I can imagine the artist, camera in hand, trying to capture the chaos and despair around him. The fisherman in the foreground seems so solitary and stoic. Is he really trying to fish, or is he just lost in thought, contemplating the disaster? It’s like a painting by Courbet or Millet, but here, the heroic figure of the peasant is replaced by a figure of perseverance. You wonder what Dangereux was thinking when he took this shot. Was he trying to document the event or find some beauty in the devastation? This piece reminds us that artists are always responding to their environment, whether it’s a landscape or a historical event. They offer us different ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.