Portret van een onbekend meisje met bloemenmand 1902 - 1909

This portrait of an unknown girl with a flower basket was captured by Anton Cornelis Thomann, a photographer born in the late 19th century. I wonder, was Thomann drawn to the contrast between the girl's youthful innocence and the formality of the portrait setting? The girl, dressed in white, stands stiffly. I bet she wanted to run off and play. The flowers in her basket are a symbol of life's fleeting beauty, and the ornate vase behind her suggests a different kind of floral arrangement and beauty. Maybe Thomann saw in this little girl something of himself, a fellow artist trying to capture a moment in time. Or perhaps he was simply trying to make a living. We'll never know for sure what he was thinking, but that's part of what makes art so fascinating. It’s like a conversation across time, one artist speaking to another through the language of images.