.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A copy of Jean Viaud-Bruant’s Jardins d’artistes: Les Peintres-Jardiniers, published in 1916, accompanies the present work, in which it is illustrated on the inside cover.
Around 1901, Le Sidaner settled in the small medieval village of Gerberoy, in the Oise département on the border of Normandy and Picardy, where he established a studio and garden that would remain central to his practice for the rest of his life. His house and gardens at Gerberoy became the dominant motif of his mature œuvre, providing a sustained source of inspiration over nearly four decades. As his close friend and early biographer Camille Mauclair observed, ‘he had the good fortune to find an atmosphere and surroundings that suited his nature and his ideas… Gerberoy was and remains his asylum pacis and family home’ (C. Mauclair, Henri Le Sidaner, Paris, 1928, p. 11).
The present work was executed in 1912, as Le Sidaner had comfortably settled in the property, and depicts one of the artist’s most cherished subjects: his house and garden at Gerberoy, which he had described as his haven of peace. Having first visited the village in 1901 at the suggestion of Auguste Rodin, Le Sidaner soon acquired a property there, transforming its grounds into a series of carefully orchestrated garden spaces that furnished him with a rich repertoire of motifs. He returned repeatedly to views of the house and its gardens, exploring subtle tonal harmonies and the effects of changing light across different times of day and seasons.
Le Jardin blanc, Gerberoy is a finished preparatory study for the large painting Le jardin blanc au crépuscule of the same year, acquired in 1913 by the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels.
Around 1901, Le Sidaner settled in the small medieval village of Gerberoy, in the Oise département on the border of Normandy and Picardy, where he established a studio and garden that would remain central to his practice for the rest of his life. His house and gardens at Gerberoy became the dominant motif of his mature œuvre, providing a sustained source of inspiration over nearly four decades. As his close friend and early biographer Camille Mauclair observed, ‘he had the good fortune to find an atmosphere and surroundings that suited his nature and his ideas… Gerberoy was and remains his asylum pacis and family home’ (C. Mauclair, Henri Le Sidaner, Paris, 1928, p. 11).
The present work was executed in 1912, as Le Sidaner had comfortably settled in the property, and depicts one of the artist’s most cherished subjects: his house and garden at Gerberoy, which he had described as his haven of peace. Having first visited the village in 1901 at the suggestion of Auguste Rodin, Le Sidaner soon acquired a property there, transforming its grounds into a series of carefully orchestrated garden spaces that furnished him with a rich repertoire of motifs. He returned repeatedly to views of the house and its gardens, exploring subtle tonal harmonies and the effects of changing light across different times of day and seasons.
Le Jardin blanc, Gerberoy is a finished preparatory study for the large painting Le jardin blanc au crépuscule of the same year, acquired in 1913 by the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels.