The present park landscape is characterized by a special atmospheric lightness. The loose application of light colors, the virtuoso play of light and shadow under the trees and the random family scene underline Max Slevogt's outstanding position within German Impressionism. After Slevogt had studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts from 1884 to 1889, he enrolled in the renowned Académie Julian in Paris in 1889. However, it was only his participation in the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris and his contact with French Impressionism, especially with the paintings of Édouard Manet, that would mark a kind of turning point on his own artistic path. He abandoned the rather dark colors of his dramatic paintings, sometimes with symbolist echoes à la Arnold Böcklin, towards a light plein-air painting in the spirit of Claude Monet. The spontaneously rendered account of the fleeting visual impression in conjunction with a suggestive characteristic flow is impressively demonstrated in the present painting "Kinder am Weiher (Garten in Godramstein)" (Children at the Pond (Garden in Godramstein)) from 1909. It was made during a time when Slevogt received many commissions for landscapes and portraits from the Bavarian Prince Regent Luitpold, while he still found time for personal depictions such as this painting which used to be in possession of the artist's mother, Caroline von Slevogt. In an almost photographically captured moment, Slevogt shows his two children Nina and Wolfgang together with their nanny on the way to a pond on his in-laws' property. Later, the nearby Neukastell estate, later called 'Slevogthof' (estate), was to become the artist's retirement home. The Palatinate landscape around Godramstein with a view of the Vosges and surrounding vineyards inspired his work throughout his life; it can be seen as additional impetus for his development towards impressionistic painting. The landscape offfered him the perfect setting for an occupation with the atmospheric effects of the seasons, the times of the day and weather phenomena. He shows an autumnal scene, the leaves are already brown and the rays of the afternoon light find their way through the thick foliage of the treetops, casting their warm light on both the path and the three figures. One can literally imagine Max Slevogt sitting behind the frame with an easel.
It is therefore not surprising that the painting was part of the acclaimed exhibition "After Impressionist: Inventing Modern Art" at one of the world's leading museums, the National Gallery in London, just this summer. [AW]