Stadsgezicht met waterweg en boten before 1901

This is a small photo of a city view with a waterway and boats, by John Cimon Warburg. It's printed on the right-hand page of an open book, somewhere, sometime between 1867 and 1931. The photographic print is modest and unassuming. It’s got that early photo feel, with soft edges and a tonal range that seems more gray than black. It’s really about atmosphere, with smoke billowing out from a boat in the foreground. The smoke sort of mirrors the clouds in the sky, blending industry with nature. I love how Warburg captured the reflections on the water. It's all about the surface. You can almost feel the damp air and smell the river. The buildings on the shoreline are a little fuzzy, a hazy silhouette against the sky. They’re more felt than seen, like a memory. It reminds me a bit of Whistler's nocturnes, where the mood is more important than the details. It is about the poetry of seeing and the conversation that art has across time. We don't need to know exactly where or when this was taken to get the feeling that Warburg was going for.