Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner

Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner was taught by Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the history painter Alexandre Desmit. He started to paint in Étaples in northern France in the 1880s after his admiration for Impressionism had prompted him to abandon the academic style of painting. As well as displaying his works at the Salon, where he achieved third place at his first exhibition, he also showcased his paintings at various Paris galleries, including Georges Petit’s and was commercially successful. After a stay in Venice in 1906 he produced numerous views of the lagoon city which came to be highly popular in Paris and London. Whereas Le Sidaner’s early works showed a certain kinship to Symbolism, his later style tended more towards Georges Seurat. His pointillist paintings with their nuanced colour harmonies and atmospheric touch are dominated by the garden landscapes and city views which Le Sidaner encountered on his numerous trips around Europe.