Henri le Sidaner

Galerie Georges Petit, Paris (archive no. 21646)
Georges Petit, Paris (sale: 4th March 1921, lot 95)
Albert Hottat, Brussels (sale: Palais de Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 17th May 1954, no. 84)
Private Collection, Belgium
De Jonckheere Master Paintings, XIII Biennale Internationale des Antiquaires, Paris, 1986
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Connaissance des Arts, 15th September 1954, illustrated
Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner, L'Œuvre Peint et Gravé, Paris, 1989, no. 421, illustrated p. 168

The canvas is not lined. UV examination reveals a small spot of retouching towards the lower left corner. There are some very fine lines of craquelure to parts of the left side of the work. Otherwise, this work is in overall very good condition.
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Les Vieilles Maisons, Quimperlé exemplifies many of the factors that ensured Le Sidaner’s success as an artist. The clever use of complementary yellow highlights and purple shades in the work, made possible through recent developments in colour theory and the manufacture of pigments. These glorious colours are further enhanced by Le Sidaner's virtuoso handling of the medium, most keenly demonstrated here in the rich impasto. It is a magnificent example of the Impressionist aesthetic that Le Sidaner so keenly channelled, while the base application of blue-green colour reveals the subtle gravitas and mystery that is particular to Le Sidaner’s oeuvre. This talent by no means went unappreciated by his contemporaries, with the prominent art critic Louis Vauxcelles writing in the journal L'Excelsior in the very same year as this painting: ‘Monsieur Le Sidaner has for years been pursuing a direction that distinguishes him: a cloudy Impressionism with strong accents in which the powerful brushwork does no harm to the characteristic magic of his motifs’ (quoted in Ingrid Mössner& Karin Sager, Henri Le Sidaner: A Magical Impressionist, Munich, 2009, p. 178).

By suggesting human presence only through their absence and focussing instead on architectural or domestic environs, Le Sidaner’s works are imbued with a delightful sense of calm that is accurately described by the contemporary art historian Camille Mauclair in the conclusion to his book: ‘It is l’heure de Le Sidaner, the time when he is most profoundly himself (…) The colors become spiritual as they resist the falling darkness to which they will ultimately succumb.  The ordinary is transformed into magic by the miracle of the moment and of the silence.  Le Sidaner is able to depict the sweetness of life transfigured by love and made visible through physical objects.’ (Camille Mauclair, Henri Le Sidaner, Paris, 1928, p. 252).

Mauclair’s words serve as an eloquent description of Les Vieilles Maison, Quimperlé, a painting filled with a sense of nostalgia and solitude.  In this exceptional work, Le Sidaner combines his innovative use of brushwork and colour with the history of a French village.  Quimperlé is snaked by canals and located on the southern coast of the tip of Brittany, near familiar names as Le Croisic and Concarneau that were frequented by Parisian bourgeois holidaymakers and the painters who depicted them, including  Paul Signac, Alfred Sisley and Eugène Boudin. As such these old houses carry a strong emotional connection in their representation of both the romance of holiday and forgotten histories, and this painting is one of very few of his works to take advantage of such a poignant subject.