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| Maison Blanche, Gerberoy |
I had never even heard of Henri Le
Sidaner until a couple of days ago, when I peeked in at Andrew
Rickard's Charon's
Barque and saw some pictures from a book his Obolus
Press had just published -- a translation of Le Sidaner's
biography, with illustrations. I checked around elsewhere and found I
really like his work.
Le Sidaner's dates are 1862-1939. He
called himself an "Intimist." His paintings look pretty
Impressionist-y to me, with maybe a dash of Pointillism. Well, as the saying goes, I
don't know much about art, but I know what I like. Unlike the guy in the Thurber cartoon:
Le Sidaner must have done pretty well
for himself -- he had some really
nice gardens. They're still maintained and open to the
public.
6 comments:
I never heard of him either, but do like his work shown in the book you linked. Funny how a little timely publicity can make the difference between household name and lost to history.
Thurber was a genius. I used to have a book of his cartoons around here.
As for impressionism, most of it is too subtle for my colorblind eyes. I do like pointillism though. Dots!
...a dash of Pointillism.
That's the place where one of those :) things deborah likes to use would work, or maybe a :-) for an even better fit. Nice turn of phrase!
To be honest, MamaM, the play on words was unintentional; but I got a laugh when you pointed it out. Thanks.
..with maybe a dash of Pointillism.
No re-Morse?
It takes me a while to digest a post like this, as it involves responses on my end that move from an immediate surface reaction to a deeper awareness that's hard to capture and convey in words. Very similar to the experience I used to have reading a newspaper, which contained multiple points of entry and was something I looked forward to and set aside time to do.
As I moved from reading the words in the post to viewing the garden and looking at the online images in Google linked to his name, I felt overwhelmed--momentarily without words, while taking in beauty, light, quietness, and excellence present. This was work I'd not previously seen, done by someone I hadn't known about, with an awareness of gracefulness, gratefulness, and a sense of invitation all mixed together while viewing it.
Then I found these words:
"Henri Le Sidaner - A magical impressionist
He is admired for the intimacy of his subject matter and his unique delight in color and form.
More than just the subject it is the surrounding luminosity which transfixes the painter. His taste for the light effects focuses on the light-dark and the twilight tones.
In 1901 he settled in the very nice village of Gerberoy (Oise), where his house and garden became a constant inspiration for his pictures."
And that took me here: Hearing of and seeing the results of the "constant inspiration" he encountered all around him in the place where he'd "settled in" felt encouraging, presenting another view, reality and hope that also inspires during this time of limitation and shutdown. And here he is, as Dad-bone noted, still making a difference, in a small but felt way, with his "taste for light effects" still savorable by others years after he stopped painting.
There's much good in that.
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