Clothes Drying

Like many of his other works, Szinyei painted this picture in Munich, but it has none of the spirit of the Academy there. It is a brilliant picture sketch inspired by a Hungarian scene. It shows the maids hanging out the washing in the garden in the summer sunlight, with the “young master” looking on. (The picture was also exhibited under the title “Young Master”). As in his picture sketch “The Swing”, Szinyei was primarily concerned with translating light into colour. He disregarded the academic rules and painted his visual experience in carefree composition. He grasped the essence of Impressionism, although he had no knowledge of the similar endeavours by French artists, had never been to Paris, and had only seen the realist paintings of Gustave Courbet and some very early works by Edouard Manet at the International Exhibition at Munich (Claude Monet painted his firs Impressionist painting in Grenoble in the same year.)