Description

Henri Le Sidaner is renowned for his serene and intimate outdoor still life scenes featuring a deserted table and chairs with hints of the human figures recently removed. He was drawn to the atmospheric small towns in Normandy, Brittany and Côte d’Azur whose old buildings and architecture were, even then, being slowly threatened with extinction.

Le Sidaner’s garden at his home in Gerberoy, where this work was painted, provided the artist seemingly endless inspiration. Le Sidaner first visited Gerberoy in March 1901 in search of a proper country home to escape to from Paris. Le Sidaner purchased a small cottage in this picturesque fortress town sixty-five miles northwest of Paris in 1904 and commenced with his plans to remodel and extend the space. By 1910 the main house was extended, a pavilion and studio barn were erected, and an extensive garden was cultivated. Le Sidaner’s home in Gerberoy, like Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, was purposefully constructed and arranged to be his artistic muse

Art critic Camille Mauclair wrote of Le Sidaner: “He considered that the silent harmony of things is enough to evoke the presence of those who live among them. Indeed, such presences are felt throughout his works. Deserted they may be but never empty” (C. Mauclair, Henri Le Sidan, Paris, 1928, p. 12).

Provenance

Paris, Salon des Tuileries, 1924, no. 962;

Paris, Galeries Georges Petit, Exposition Le Sidaner, February 1925, no. 4

Biography

Henri Le Sidaner was born in Mauritius and moved to Paris at the age of 18, becoming a pupil of Cabanel at the E?cole des Beaux-Arts in 1884. The artist exhibited in Paris for the first time in 1887 at the Salon des Artistes Français. He also exhibited in Paris at the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and in 1930 was appointed a member of the Institut at the Academie des Beaux-Arts.

In 1900 he visited the tiny village of Gerberoy (Seine-et-Oise) where he later bought the house which became the inspiration for many of his paintings and where he painted many of his beautiful still lifes. He described the town as a “haven of peace” and also described it as being “seeped in history and gentle nostalgia.” This is probably due to its crucial location both during the battles between the Normans and the English in the 11th Century, and the Hundred Years’ War in the 14th and 15th Century.

Le Sidaner was interested in, and influenced by, the colour theories and pointillism of Neo-Impressionism that the 1900s brought with it. More specifically, the style of Eugene Carrière (which is characterised by indeterminate colours and a taste for a certain misty atmosphere) was admired by Le Sidaner and the piece seen here can be regarded as a development of Carrière’s technique. The focus for both Sidaner and Carrière was on light and how it could be shown on canvas to give objects a three dimensional effect as well as a sensation of calm and of atmosphere. The painting here causes one to reflect on the essence of stillness and the beauty that light creates, when time and light seem to be diffused.

He worked in the realist style, but his love of penumbra and twilight create a poetic and dreamy quality to his technical expertise. There is also undoubtedly an influence of optics on Le Sidaner’s work. The atmosphere of his paintings, whether they are landscapes or still lifes result from both his delicate style of painting and his choice of subjects.

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