Le Sidanier spent his early childhood in the exotic atmosphere of the island of Mauritius where he was born. In 1870 his surroundings underwent a radical change when the family moved to Dunkerque, in northern France. At the age of eighteen, he was allowed to follow his artistic vocation and received a solid academic training in Paris under the tutelage of Cabanel. Though attracted by impressionism, Le Sidanier never truly joined the movement. He moved back to northern France, to the small fishing port of Etaples, where he lived for nine years, painting realistic, sentimental scenes of everyday places and people.
In 1894 he returned to Paris, just as the symbolist fever was taking hold. He became friends with the Belgian luminist Emil Claus and participated in exhibitions of La Libre Esthétique in Brussels. His universe became gradually more subtle, as he sought to reproduce special effects of light – dusk, the first rays of the sun at dawn or sun filtering through mist – and evanescent atmospheres. This evolution appears most clearly in the paintings he made while living in Bruges for two years (1898–1899), which heralded his artistic transformation. A city of water, fog, silence, solitude and mystery, Bruges perfectly embodied his aspirations and allowed him to translate them immediately onto the canvas. From that point onwards, figures disappeared from his paintings.
He focused exclusively on representing the poetry and magic of a place, and its special light, using shifting hues to create a diffuse atmosphere and spending a long time on each painting to meld the small brushstrokes.
Le Sidanier then returned to France and bought a large house and studio in Gerberoy. The old stones of the house, its shady, flower-filled garden and the still lives that the artist arranged on tables became his main subjects; he painted them from every angle and at every time of day. Occasionally, he returned to portraying the nostalgic poetry of French street corners and landscapes.
For further information, please contact Artvera’s Gallery at
or +41 22 311 05 53