HENRI LE SIDANER | La Table devant la fenêtre

Galeries Georges Petit, Paris
Knoedler & Co, Paris
Collection H. van Beek, Rotterdam (acquired by 1933)
Private Collection, United Kingdom (by descent from the above)
Thence by descent to the present owners

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition des Douze, 1921, no. 26
Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Exposition de Brighton, 1923, no. 158
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel J. Goudstikker, Het Stilleven, 1933, no. 88

Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner, l’Œuvre peint et gravé, Paris, 1989, no. 471, illustrated p. 184

The canvas has been strip-lined. Examination under UV light reveals a fine, vertical line of retouching towards the centre of the lower edge (approximately 3cm. long) associated to an old repaired tear to the canvas. There are intermittent fine marks of frame rubbing along the upper and lower edges. There is some minor pigment loss in places along the extreme edges. There are some isolated fine lines of craquelure in places. This work is in overall very good condition.
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Imbued with the luminous glow of late afternoon sun, La Table devant la fenêtre reveals Henri Le Sidaner’s remarkable ability to distil the effects of light and atmosphere within his paintings. An array of still life accoutrements – bottles, a teapot and cups – have been arranged enticingly atop the table, whilst two exquisitely delicate cut flower stems decorate the edge of the cloth.  There is a timeless quality to the scene; a moment of tranquil domesticity immortalised on canvas to profound effect. La Table devant la fenêtre was painted in Versailles, where Le Sidaner had first moved in 1903. The artist and his family spent the winters there, returning to the town of Gerberoy during the summer, where he also owned a property. Versailles soon became the artist’s favourite place of residence, providing him with numerous compositional subjects. In his later years, Le Sidaner would focus heavily on depictions of Versailles that ‘include intimate views into and out of his own living quarters, in which draftsmanship and composition increasingly give way to painterly effects and to broader and rougher brushwork’ (Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner: l’Œuvre peint et gravé, Paris, 1989, p. 178). The invitingly adorned table positioned in front of a window was a favoured theme for the artist, enabling him to communicate a palpable distinction between external and internal light. His son recalls: ‘[Le Sidaner] frequently represented interiors, in which the sunlight was softened by gently rippling curtains. When my father caught one of these "special effects", he nodded in my direction and stood there, glazing towards the horizon, impressing on his mind the scene he had just witnessed’ (ibid., p. 10).

The significance of La Table devant la fenêtre was highlighted by its inclusion in an exhibition at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris in 1921, the year of its creation. By 1933 it had passed into a private collection, remaining with the descendants of the same family until the present day.