- 323
Henri le Sidaner
Description
- Henri Le Sidaner
- LA MAISON DE L'ÉTÉ
- signed Le Sidaner (lower right)
- oil on canvas
- 73 by 92cm., 28 3/4 by 36 1/4 in.
Provenance
Pierre Rollin, Versailles
Private Collection, Paris (sale: Sotheby's, London, 3rd December 1986, lot 210)
Purchased at the above sale by the late owners
Exhibited
Provence, Galerie d'Art Drouot, Sélection de Tableaux Modernes, 1946
Paris, Musée Galliéra, Rétrospective Le Sidaner, 1948, no. 18
Literature
Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner, L'œuvre peint et gravé, Milan, 1989, no. 523, illustrated p. 201
Catalogue Note
Henri Le Sidaner was introduced to Gerberoy by Auguste Rodin who suggested to him that this historic fortress town in the Oise region would make the prefect location for his home. Le Sidaner visited Gerberoy for the first time in March 1901 and he moved into rented accommodation in June. He started painting there almost immediately and exhibited the works in the 1902 Salon to critical acclaim. He bought the property depicted in the present work in 1904 and carried out extensive renovations of the buildings and gardens. 'Once the acquisition was made in 1904, construction naturally began with the studio. This was built in a former barn, while the house was decorated with an awning and a bow window. The 'white garden' was the first to be laid out, containing a lawn and straight avenues, but devoid of any real symmetry, just like the house itself' (R. le Sidaner, quoted in: Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op. cit., p. 31).
The home and gardens Le Sidaner created at Gerberoy and Versailles provided one of his most enduring themes. The present sun-drenched work is one of his crowning achievements of the numerous variations executed during the 1920s. The domestic intimacy summed up by his trellises and the beauty of the flowers against the mellow sun-kissed stone of the house epitomises Le Sidaner's talent of creating subtle, serene and intimate scenes. 'His œuvre displays a taste for tender, soft and silent atmospheres. Gradually, he even went so far as to eliminate all human presence from his pictures, as if he feared that the slightest human form might disturb their muffled silence' (Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op. cit., p. 31). Instead of figures, Le Sidaner focused on the architectural and domestic environments as well as the accoutrements man creates for himself. '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, op. cit., p. 12).
Comp: 418d06008_comp Fig. 1, Photograph of Le Sidaner in front of his house