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Lot Essay
Le Sidaner first visited Gerberoy in March 1901 and was immediately taken with the tranquility of his surroundings. Like Claude Monet, who found limitless inspiration from his carefully constructed garden at Giverny, Le Sidaner devoted ceaseless attention to his home and its environs, enlarging the buildings and designing all aspects of the improvements himself. These enhancements, particularly those centered around the flower garden in the courtyard in which he attempted to create harmony between the plants and the buildings, provided the artist with a wealth of inspiration and a crucial source of new subject matter and, like Monet at Giverny, Le Sidaner's art became inextricably linked with his house and gardens at Gerberoy.
The table setting of the present painting possesses an air of refinement, and it is obvious that great care has been taken in the selection of objects, the precise arrangement of which engenders a subtle play of formal correspondences. The lavender highlights on the teapot, for instance, echo the cascades of freesia pouring down the wall of the château. A bouquet of lush, pink roses imbued with yellow mirrors the dapples of midday sun in the courtyard. Finally, a series of concentric circles--from the multiple rims of the bowl, cup and saucer, to the shape of the table itself--dictates the composition's rhythm.
The care with which these objects are laid out attests to a palpable, if invisible, human presence that lends the work an atmosphere of intimacy. Catherine Lévy-Lambert describes this sensation of someone having recently attended the now empty table: "These familiar objects supplied in the absence of people make one think that people have just left, and are nearby, or will return to lend the objects an animation that was only temporarily absent" (in "L'oeuvre de Henri Le Sidaner," Henri Le Sidaner, exh. cat., Musée Marmottan, Paris, 1989, p. 31).
(fig. 1) The artist painting a still-life in his garden in Gerberoy. Photograph Archive Le Sidaner, Paris.
The table setting of the present painting possesses an air of refinement, and it is obvious that great care has been taken in the selection of objects, the precise arrangement of which engenders a subtle play of formal correspondences. The lavender highlights on the teapot, for instance, echo the cascades of freesia pouring down the wall of the château. A bouquet of lush, pink roses imbued with yellow mirrors the dapples of midday sun in the courtyard. Finally, a series of concentric circles--from the multiple rims of the bowl, cup and saucer, to the shape of the table itself--dictates the composition's rhythm.
The care with which these objects are laid out attests to a palpable, if invisible, human presence that lends the work an atmosphere of intimacy. Catherine Lévy-Lambert describes this sensation of someone having recently attended the now empty table: "These familiar objects supplied in the absence of people make one think that people have just left, and are nearby, or will return to lend the objects an animation that was only temporarily absent" (in "L'oeuvre de Henri Le Sidaner," Henri Le Sidaner, exh. cat., Musée Marmottan, Paris, 1989, p. 31).
(fig. 1) The artist painting a still-life in his garden in Gerberoy. Photograph Archive Le Sidaner, Paris.