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Lot Essay
Denoted by planar, fragmented brushwork, the colored light in Le Sidaner’s Neige, Boulevard de la Reine seamlessly hops across the snowy path from window to window under the hazy dusk of day’s end. The stillness and dreamy silence of what Camille Mauclair coined as “Le Sidaner’s time” elicits a sense of dream-like nostalgia and sentimental realism over the dissolving forms.
Often compared to Claude Monet for his portrayal of light through the manipulation of color, Le Sidaner differed from the older generation of Impressionists in that he rarely painted outdoors. He would quickly sketch the scenes he observed as he walked through the town, later crafting the compositions from his imagination. Le Sidaner breached a new realm of symbolist rhetoric through his “musical quality of colour” (I. Mössinger and K. Sagner, Henri Le Sidaner, Chemnitz, 2009, p. 66) and “taste for tender, soft and silent atmospheres” (Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op. cit., p. 31).
The setting of the present painting possesses an air of stillness, and it is obvious that great care has been taken in the framing of the composition, the precise arrangement of which engenders a subtle play on formal correspondences. The lavender highlights in the snow and sky complement the shutters on the houses and contrast with the glowing pink and amber light coming from the windows.
Often compared to Claude Monet for his portrayal of light through the manipulation of color, Le Sidaner differed from the older generation of Impressionists in that he rarely painted outdoors. He would quickly sketch the scenes he observed as he walked through the town, later crafting the compositions from his imagination. Le Sidaner breached a new realm of symbolist rhetoric through his “musical quality of colour” (I. Mössinger and K. Sagner, Henri Le Sidaner, Chemnitz, 2009, p. 66) and “taste for tender, soft and silent atmospheres” (Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op. cit., p. 31).
The setting of the present painting possesses an air of stillness, and it is obvious that great care has been taken in the framing of the composition, the precise arrangement of which engenders a subtle play on formal correspondences. The lavender highlights in the snow and sky complement the shutters on the houses and contrast with the glowing pink and amber light coming from the windows.