At the Chinese Tower in Munich, 1915

Symeon Savvides is the most authentic Impressionist of the Munich School and perhaps the only one who fully assimilated the theory of light and colour of this School. This was because he conducted his own research and studied the physiology of light, its analysis into the spectrum colours, and the interdependence of light and colour in nature, following atmospheric changes. In front of the Chinese tower in the Munich Park, a joyful bunch of kids in white are going crazy, whirling around a beautiful girl with an umbrella. In the background, a colourful crowd bustles. The painter intended to offer an instant capture, a snapshot of a Sunday walk in the Munich Gardens. We can almost feel the light falling on the white and coloured clothes and animating them. “Ponds” of light form on the grass. The white colour is rendered through light complementary shades of blue and ochre, while only where the sun falls is the white truly pure. The artist wrote, “What if a sun ray suddenly fell on the white dress in the shade? Then that would become the lightest spot throughout the entire event in the work.”