Zeilschip in het water 1905 - 1910

Theo van Heemstede Obelt made this photograph of a sailboat sometime between his birth in 1857 and his death in 1918. It's a study in sepia tones. It's quite muted; you get a sense of stillness from the monotone colours. Looking at the surface, you notice the way the light catches on the water. It almost feels like the artist has built up layers of dark and light to create this shimmering effect. The way the detail softens around the edges it feels like you are looking at a memory of a place, a moment captured but already fading. The mast and the rigging reach high into the sky, almost touching the top edge of the image, they remind me of a Cy Twombly sketch. There's something about the way the lines are rendered, a kind of vulnerability that resonates. You can't help but feel like you are witnessing a moment of quiet contemplation. Art's like that, isn't it? A never ending conversation across time and space.