The Viennese photographer Heinrich Kühn was among the leading figures of international Pictorialism at the turn of the century, a movement that presented photography as equal in artistic control and expression to the other fine arts. Like many of his peers, he favored intimate subjects, focusing on his friends and family in domestic settings. This photograph, however, suggests a transition from the soft-focus style of Pictorialism to a more Modernist aesthetic. Although it depicts Kühn’s studio, the play of light, pattern of lines, and abstracted forms of off-kilter boards are what take center stage.