Fountain in the Park of Sanssouci Palace near Potsdam

Théo van Rysselberghe's 1903 painting of the fountain at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam captures one of the great Rococo garden features of the Prussian royal residence, built by Frederick the Great in the mid-eighteenth century. Van Rysselberghe, the Belgian Neo-Impressionist, was drawn to garden subjects that allowed him to explore sunlit water surfaces with his divisionist technique. The Sanssouci fountains, with their elaborate stone surrounds and cascading water, offered an ideal combination of architectural solidity and aqueous shimmer. The painting is now in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

Van Rysselberghe uses his neo-impressionist divided touch to render the sunlit water of the fountain with chromatic vibration. The palette is bright and warm — blues, yellows, warm greens — with individual colour touches placed in systematic relationships. The architectural stone surrounds are treated with slightly more resolved brushwork than the water.