Engels meisje met pijpenkrullen in Zweeds klederdracht, vermoedelijk in Rusland 1903 - 1904

This cabinet card, "Engels meisje met pijpenkrullen in Zweeds klederdracht, vermoedelijk in Rusland" was made by Joseph Cheetham sometime in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. The grey tones here give a real sense of faded memory. There's a softness to the image, it's all a bit hazy around the edges, like the memory of a dream. The texture and light are all captured in such detail, but the overall effect is painterly and dreamy. Look at the girl’s face, she’s kind of blurry, not in focus, but you can see the essence of her, the slight smile. It reminds me of a Gerhard Richter painting, where the image seems to almost disappear, but the emotional punch stays there. This tension between detail and blur is what makes this picture so interesting. It's like Cheetham is saying, "Here's a girl, but she's also a ghost, a memory, a feeling." And that's what art is all about, right?