Eetkamer met aangrenzende woonkamer 1903

Johannes Lüpke shot this silver gelatin print of a dining room and adjacent living room; I can imagine him carefully composing this shot, thinking about how to best capture the light. The photograph shows a large room dominated by a huge carved fireplace and a table set for a meal, but what really gets me going is the ship sitting on the mantelpiece. I wonder if Lüpke included it to add a bit of whimsy and adventure to what is otherwise a very traditional interior, or was he drawn to the way the model ship echoed the forms of the fireplace itself? What would it have been like to be Johannes Lüpke at this time? I bet he never imagined that his photograph would still be around, inspiring artists like me, almost a century later. Just think of the creative conversations across time that works like this make possible.