Amsterdam

Herengracht, Amsterdam – © Brian Rose

This is central Amsterdam, the canal belt, “grachtengordel” in Dutch, still functional despite the intimacy of the streets and architecture. Fashionable (gentrified), full of shops, people on foot, on bikes, and a Tesla quietly slithering through. The composition echoes the great Gustave Caillebotte street scene of Paris in the Art Institute of Chicago. Paris is, of course, different in scale, and the painting achieves a geometric orderliness that the photo does not. But both images convey a simultaneous sense of modernity and timelessness.

Paris Street, Rainy Day – Gustave Caillebotte