Sotheby's: Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale: Lot 221
HENRI LE SIDANER
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1862-1939
LA TABLE, AUTOMNE, GERBEROY
measurements
27 1/4 by 33 1/2 in.
alternate measurements
69.3 by 85.1 cm
Painted in 1920.
Signed LE SIDANER (lower left)
Oil on canvas
PROVENANCE
Galeries Georges Petit, Paris
Gaby Salomon, Buenos Aires
Geo Davey, Paris
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
Nora Prince-Littler, London
Sale: Christie's, London, June 28, 1977, lot 1
Richard Green, London
Private Collection
EXHIBITED
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Salle Le Sidaner, 1921, no. 190
London, Roland Browse and Delbanco, Le Sidaner, 1964, no. 57
London, Burlington House, Post Impressionism, 1979, no. 115, illustrated
Paris, Musée Marmottan, Henri Le Sidaner, 1989, no. 33
LITERATURE
Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner, l'Oeuvre peint et gravé, Paris, 1989, no. 427, illustrated p. 170
NOTE
Le Sidaner developed his distinctine idiom during the 1890's, under the influence of symbolism. The poignant fin-de-siècle mood of Maeterlinck and Verhaern, of Lévy-Dhurmer and Khnopff set the tone of his oeuvre. On a formal level, he found a suitably harmonious, all over treatment for his compostitions in Neo-Impressionism.
Critics have frequently described Le Sidaner's work in terms of musicality and silence. Always in a 'minor key;' its subtle harmonies are seen to evoke a whistful mood that is exasperated as Paul Signac notes, by the absence of figures: "His oeuvre 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" (quoted in Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op. cit., p31). Instead the artist focused on the architectural and domestic environments as well as their 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, Henri Le Sidaner, Paris, 1928, p.12).
The home and gardens Le Sidaner created at Gerbroy and Versailles provided his most enduring themes. The present work is one of his crowning achievements of the numerous variations executed during the 1920's. As Maurice Hamberger points out, "Le Sidaner has sensed that beauty, like happiness, consists above all in inner harmony, calm and simplicity" (Le Soir, 1930)
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