LA PIAZZETTA, VENISE

VENICE WAS A SUBJECT TO WHICH LE SIDANER RETURNED THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, PERHAPS INSPIRED BY MONET'S AND WHISTLER'S CELEBRATED AND ATMOSPHERIC RENDERINGS OF LA SERENISSIMA. INDEED, LE SIDANER'S LAST RECORDED WORK, FOUND AFTER HIS DEATH IN HIS STUDIO AT VERSAILLES, WAS A PAINTING OF VENICE PAINTED FROM MEMORY.
THE PRESENT WORK, DATING FROM LE SIDANER'S JOURNEY TO VENICE IN APRIL 1914, TAKES A VIEW FROM INSIDE ST MARK'S SQUARE, DEPICTING THE DOGE'S PALACE ON THE LEFT, WITH THE CAMPANILE OF SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE JUST TO THE RIGHT, AT THE CENTRE OF THE COMPOSITION. WHILE LE SIDANER SELDOM POPULATED HIS CANVASES, THE EXCEPTIONS TEND TO BE HIS VENETIAN WORKS WHICH, AS IN THE PRESENT CASE, ARE ENRICHED WITH A MYSTERIOUS, FROZEN DRAMATIS PERSONAE.