Theo Stiphout was an artist with a social conscience. He usually painted townscapes in a realistic style. Between 1934 and 1937 Stiphout lived and worked on the second floor of the Nieuwezijds Kolk in Amsterdam. From his window, he painted the view across the street of a bakery and coffee house. An organ grinder has parked his instrument in front of the coffee house and is turning the wheel, while his assistant is shaking the money-box. The people behind the window briefly look up from their coffee. There are several views from artists’ studios or lodgings to be found in the museum collection, like those by Willem Witsen, Jan Sluyters and Jan Veth. This painting by Stiphout continues the series and in addition to this it represents the crisis years of the 1930s in an arresting way.