Henri le Sidaner

Henri Le Sidaner’s work of the 1920s is universally considered to be the peak of his long and distinguished career.  La Nappe bleue embodies the strikingly luminous quality so unique to the artist, and the harmonious use of color, light and divided brushwork, convey a sense of intimacy that draws the viewer into the moment at hand.  Le Sidaner developed his distinctive idiom during the 1890s, under the influence of Symbolism.  The poignant fin-de-siècle mood of Maeterlinck and Verhaeren, of Lévy-Dhurmer and Khnopff set the tone of his œuvre.  On a formal level, he found a suitably harmonious, all-over treatment for his compositions in Neo-Impressionism.

In 1901 Le Sidaner visited the fortressed town of Gerberoy and rented a small cottage.  Three years later he purchased the cottage and set out to enlarge both the building and the grounds.  Henri Le Sidaner designed everything himself and paid special attention to blending the original cottage in with the newer architecture.  He did this by coaxing plants to grow up the walls and by adding special gardens featuring dominant tones throughout the landscape.  His terraced gardens had a decisively Mediterranean feel.

The home and gardens Le Sidaner created at Gerberoy from 1901 onwards provided his most enduring theme.  He was extremely fond of table-settings as a subject matter and he played with different arrangements of glasses, drink, fruits and other tableware to create the desired effect.  La Nappe bleue presents us with an inviting table set for tea on the terrace outside of the cottage.  The composition is pulled slightly away from the table, both inviting a viewer to sit at tea and as a compositional starting point to direct the viewer diagonally across the canvas and through the terrace.  Le Sidaner was a master at the effects of light on objects, and reflective surfaces played a leading role in his work.  The light that filters through the trees and vines overhead creates a dappled effect that plays off the luminous ceramics and brightly colored oranges.  The domestic intimacy and muted joy summoned up by his depiction of leafy vines, fruit and colorful ceramics in the present work exemplify Maurice Hamburger’s judgment that, “Le Sidaner has sensed that beauty, like happiness, consists above all in inner harmony, calm and simplicity” (Le Soir, 1930).