Veranda 1900 - 1922

This is "Veranda," a photograph by Robert Julius Boers, we don’t know exactly when it was made but it now lives in the Rijksmuseum. Boers work with a very muted palette of creams and browns, which blurs the boundaries between forms, turning the whole image into a wash of tones. The emulsion of the print is very thin, you can barely make out the chairs, tables and plants. Look how the shadows in the foreground seem to bleed out into the lighter areas, it’s almost like the scene is disappearing. It is an everyday scene, but it feels dreamlike and ethereal. The longer I look at this piece, the more I think about Felix Vallotton, with his use of limited colour palettes and exploration of interior space. But where Vallotton is sharp and angular, Boers is blurry and soft. This isn’t about perfection; it’s about feeling, atmosphere, and those hazy memories that drift in and out of focus.