Fotoreproductie van een schildering, voorstellende een gezicht op Lime House before 1876

This is a photographic reproduction of an anonymous painting depicting Lime House. Notice the prominent chimney stacks rising from the rooftops, a powerful symbol of hearth and home, but also of industry and modernity. Chimneys, from the humblest cottages to the grandest estates, carry connotations of warmth, comfort, and domesticity that stretches back to ancient times. Smoke, once a necessity for survival, evolved into a signifier of civilization itself. We see echoes of this in the hearths of Roman villas, each symbolizing family and lineage. Yet, as industrialization swept across Europe, the chimney transformed. No longer just a marker of the domestic sphere, it became a towering emblem of progress, spewing forth the smoke of factories and mills. The chimney embodies a potent tension between the longing for a simpler past and the inexorable march of progress, a duality that continues to resonate in our collective consciousness.