Henri Le Sidaner (1862–1939)

HENRI LE SIDANER (French, 1862–1939)
L’etude pour la table aux lanternes, 1924
Ink, crayon, and watercolor on paper, 9 11/16 x 11 in.
Executed in Gerberoy in the summer of 1924

EX COLL.: the artist; to his sons, Louis and Rémy Le Sidaner, by descent, 1939; to Maurice Sternberg, Chicago; to [Galleries Maurice Sternberg, Chicago]; to private collection, mid-1990s, and by descent, until the present

NOTE: to be included in the supplement to the catalogue raisonné of the work of Henri Le Sidaner, undergoing preparation by Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, the artist’s grandson. Accompanied by photo-certificate no. LS 643.

Drawings created by Le Sidaner in Gerberoy are exceedingly rare. Kept in a chest of drawers in the painter’s studio, most of them were, unfortunately, burned by occupying forces for fuel during the winters of the Second World War.

This drawing depicts the small courtyard at Gerberoy, a space that held just as much significance in the painter’s oeuvre as the garden itself, offering him an ideal setting for his recurring theme of laid tables that guests have only just left. It is there that, during the warmer months, the table is set for family or guests: “I can truthfully extol to you the coolness of the garden where we shall have lunch,” Le Sidaner wrote to his friends.