Isabel Wachenheimer op een stoel op het balkon met haar kindermeisje, juli-augustus 1933, Hamburg Possibly 1933 - 1937

This photograph by the Wachenheimer family captures Isabel Wachenheimer with her child’s nanny on a balcony in Hamburg during the summer of 1933. I can imagine the artist peering through the camera’s lens, thinking about the best way to capture the moment. Photography, like painting, is about light and shadow, isn't it? I'm thinking about the way the sunlight hits the nanny's crisp white dress and the young girl's pensive face. Look at the way her eyes gaze upwards, lost in her thoughts! It makes me think about Édouard Vuillard, and how he captured similar moments of interiority and domestic life. But the Wachenheimer family, like so many artists who make work from life, show us what is worth remembering. This simple, elegant image speaks to a broader artistic interest in the lives of women and children and the beauty of everyday life.