“At the bottom of what sea of mysteries do we live?” – Maurice Maeterlinck
Poor Henri Le Sidaner. Usually when his work is mentioned, it is dismissed as second-rate impressionism. All those rose drenched gardens, tables set prettily for unseen guests - why do we no longer see the darkness in this largely depopulated twilight world?A solitary walker, reading as she walks, oblivious to the autumn beautiful evening is, at the least, a figure of ambiguity.
In 1936, Le Sidaner made the jour
ney south to Chambery to visit Les Charmettes, once home to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a man who also understood that the beautiful surface of life was not all there is, as in this, from the Discourse On Inequality of 1754: "The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society"
Born on the island of Mauritius, a French colony in the southwestern Indian Ocean> Thus Le Sidaner (1862-1939) experienced his native country of France with an outsider's eye. He spent much of his adult life in Gerberoy, a village that prides itself on its membership in the Association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Photographs suggest that his paintings, while faithful recreations of the 'City of Roses', were the product of that outsider's eye.
In his early days as a student in Paris, Le Sidaner became friends with several Symbolists, notably the poets Emile Verhaeren and Maurice Maeterlinck, both finalists for the Nobel Literature Prize in 1911 (Maeterlinck won). Also Georges Rodenbach, the soon to be famous author of the novel Bruges La Morte. 
An extended stay in the Belgian city in 1898, proved decisive in turning Le Sidaner's art toward Symbolism. A backwater since the days of its medieval prosperity, Bruges was known for its "beautiful order of night things"(Paul Riff), an apt description of Symbolist images. By adopting the method of classical perspective, Le Sidaner found a way to render the solid architecture and liquid veins of canals with his divisionist brush that made the reflections of float eerily on the waters.
These new works attracted high praise to Le Sidaner on his return to Paris. It was also at this time that he made his first visit to Gerberoy, the nea
rby town where he and his wife eventually settled.
Gustave Shoe, writing in La Revue Blanche (1901) dubbed Le Sidaner "the Maeterlinck of painting." Marcel Proust, in one of a many opinions on art that he put into the mouths of his characters in A La Recherche du temps perdus, made one deliver the verdict that Le Sidaner was "highly distinguished" but "not great."
An extended stay in the Belgian city in 1898, proved decisive in turning Le Sidaner's art toward Symbolism. A backwater since the days of its medieval prosperity, Bruges was known for its "beautiful order of night things"(Paul Riff), an apt description of Symbolist images. By adopting the method of classical perspective, Le Sidaner found a way to render the solid architecture and liquid veins of canals with his divisionist brush that made the reflections of float eerily on the waters.
These new works attracted high praise to Le Sidaner on his return to Paris. It was also at this time that he made his first visit to Gerberoy, the nea
rby town where he and his wife eventually settled.Gustave Shoe, writing in La Revue Blanche (1901) dubbed Le Sidaner "the Maeterlinck of painting." Marcel Proust, in one of a many opinions on art that he put into the mouths of his characters in A La Recherche du temps perdus, made one deliver the verdict that Le Sidaner was "highly distinguished" but "not great."
Images.
1. The White Garden At Twilight, 1912, Belgian Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.
2. Autumn Evening, undated, Thyssen-Bornemsiza Museum, Madrid.
3. The House Of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1936, Peter Notter Galerie, Geneva.
4. Gerberoy Evening, 1937, Norton Simon Museum, Los Angeles.
5. The Balustrade In Autumn, 1910, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris.
5. The Balustrade In Autumn, 1910, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris.
6. The House of Roses, 1930, Musee de Picardie, France.
You may also be interested in Henri Le Sidaner In Bruges, posted here 6 September 2009.
Visit http://www.lesidaner.com.
Visit http://www.lesidaner.com.
6 comments:
The works of Le Sidaner seem interesting but perhaps his fame is suffering from the fact he appears to have been primarily a follower? I think Symbolist painting is very under-rated anyhow. It might experience a revival soon (hopefully it will!)
Thanks for sharing! I would never hear of Le Sidaner without you.
http://davidikus.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your message which is very interesting and instructive.
That it is Impressioniste or post-impressionist does not have importance, which account is that paintings are beautiful and full of depth of heart
Le Sidaner's work has been much reproduced and is often treated superificially, I think, because the surfaces are beautiful. There are videos of Le Sidaner's home, gardens, and the town of Gerberoy on Youtube, et al. The place is impossibly pretty, but that didn't blind the painter to the solitude that each of us carries with them. His work repays close attention.
I have visited this site and got lots of information than other site visited before a month.
work from home
Jane,
I came across this post in doing a search on one of Le Sidaner's paintings, Table in the Sunlight in the Garden. I am featuring it for Mother's Day despite his poor ratings throughout art history.
I can almost hear the Proust character you cite sniffing disapprovingly as he or she mutters "highly distinguished" but "not great."
Wonderful encapsulation. I will continue to enjoy and post his work and perhaps our efforts will bring him a new found fame.
It's easy to glide over the attractive surface of Le Sidnaer's works and overlook the Symbolist atmospherics embedded within, perhaps because he didn't personify them. No wraith-like maidens or menacing temptresses here.
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