Richard Green, London

Paris, Galeries Georges Petit, Exposition Le Sidaner, 1927, no. 6

Yann Farinaux-Le Sidaner, Le Sidaner, L'œuvre peint et gravé, Milan, 1989, no. 627, illustrated in colour p. 231

The canvas is not lined. There are six pinhead-sized spots of retouching towards the centre of the top edge, a 1cm. sq. area of retouching to the right of the rooves in the centre of the top right quadrant, all visible under UV light. This work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall much richer and stronger in the original.
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Epitomizing the artist's skillful play with light, effect and colour, Sur les toits creates an atmosphere of meditative contemplation. The viewer's gaze lingers on the balustrade over the village rooftops of Gerberoy into the distance of the fields, absorbing the colour and mood. The tree trunks on either side frame the composition, effectively enhancing the depth of perspective. The absence of figures allows one's imagination to awaken and to be fully present in the bright daylight. Le Sidaner was fully aware that he would not have time to depict the plays of light and their changing reflections as they materialized, so he instead focused on fully experiencing the moment in order to re-create it more perfectly once it passed. He would memorize a scene and later reproduce it in the studio. As the artist's son, Rémy Le Sidaner, recalls, 'When my father caught one of these "special effects", he nodded in my direction and stood there, gazing out towards the horizon, impressing on his mind the scene he had just witnessed' (quoted in Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op.cit., Milan, 1989, p. 10).

Le Sidaner developed his distinctive idiom during the 1890s, under the influence of Symbolism. The poignant fin-de-siècle mood of Maeterlinck and Verhaeren, of Lévy-Dhurmer and Knopff set the tone of his œuvre. On a formal level, he found a suitably🅺 harmonious, all-over treatment for his compositions in Neo-Impressionism.

Critics have frequently described Le Sidaner's works in terms of musicality and silence. Always in a 'minor key', its subtle harmonies are seen to evoke a wistful mood that is exacerbated, as Paul Signac notes, by the absence of figures: 'His œuvre displays a taste for tender, soft and silent atmospheres. Gradually he even went so far as to eliminate all human presence from his pictures, as if he feared that the slightest human form might disturb their muffled silence' (quoted in Y. Farinaux-Le Sidaner, op.cit., p. 31). Instead, the artist focused on the architectural and domestic environments man creates for himself. 'He considered that the silent harmony of things is enough to evoke the presence of these who live among them. Indeed, such presences are felt throughout his works. Deserted they may be, but never empty' (C. Mauclair, Henri Le Sidaner, Paris, 1928, p. 12).