Henri LE SIDANER (Port-Louis, 1862 - Versailles, 1939 ) Sailing boat in calm seas Oil on canvas Signed and dated 'Henri Le Sidaner. 85' lower left 97.0 x 40.0 cm Provenance: Formerly La Galerie d'Art, Mulhouse and Strasbourg, according to a label on the reverse The son of a Breton sea captain, Henri Le Sidaner was born in Mauritius and grew up in Dunkirk, where his father had become a ship broker. As a child, he was an attentive spectator of the schooners preparing for the Great Cod Fishery, and no doubt a close friend of the sailors who frequented his parents' galley. His incurable seasickness prevented him from following in the footsteps of his forebears, but from his very first preserved attempts, he reproduced the sailing ships of which he would remain the tender spectator. In the autumn of 1880, a few days after arriving in Paris to try to get into the École des Beaux-Arts, he learned of his father's death, lost at sea. On one occasion, reading that the body of a naval officer had been thrown into the sea in accordance with custom, he told his children that it was probably the most beautiful of all burials. Sailboat on a calm sea was painted in 1885 in the North Sea, or in Dunkirk, where his family lived, or perhaps in Etaples where the artist had just settled, leaving Cabanel's studio to work on nature with the support of his master. The canvas, painted before he became aware of Impressionism, remains one of the very few surviving works from that year, along with Sailboat on the Lagoon in a horizontal marine format, and The Church of Etaples given to the town of Dunkirk, on which his grant depended. The others were destroyed by their creator. From the outset, in order to follow the sail of a boat or paint a full-length portrait, the painter let himself be tempted by the vertical format, such as Marine, temps gris, 1884, kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Calais. Once he had found his way, he gave up contemplating sleeping cities. We would like to thank Mr Yann Farinaux for confirming the authenticity of this painting by means of a visual examination, as well as for writing this notice, dated 15 January 2025. A certificate will be issued to the buyer. Henri LE SIDANER (Port-Louis, 1862 - Versailles, 1939 ) 97.0 x 40.0 cm The son of a Breton sea captain, Henri Le Sidaner was born in Mauritius and grew up in Dunkirk, where his father had become a ship broker. As a child, he was an attentive spectator of the schooners preparing for the Great Cod Fishery, and no doubt a close friend of the sailors who frequented his parents' galley. His incurable seasickness prevented him from following in the footsteps of his forebears, but from his very first preserved attempts, he reproduced the sailing ships of which he would remain an admiring spectator. In the autumn of 1880, a few days after arriving in Paris to try to get into the École des Beaux-Arts, he learned of his father's death, lost at sea. On one occasion, reading that the body of a naval officer had been thrown into the sea in accordance with custom, he told his children that it was probably the most beautiful of all burials. Sailboat on a calm sea was painted in 1885 in the North Sea, or perhaps in Dunkirk, where his family lived, or perhaps in Etaples, where the artist had just settled, leaving Cabanel's studio to work on nature with the support of his master. The canvas, painted before he became aware of Impressionism, remains one of the very few surviving works from that year, along with Sailboat on the Lagoon in a horizontal marine format, and The Church of Etaples given to the town of Dunkirk, on which his grant depended. The others were destroyed by their creator. From the outset, in order to follow the sail of a boat or paint a full-length portrait, the painter let himself be tempted by the vertical format, such as Marine, temps gris, 1884, kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Calais. Once he had found his way, he gave up contemplating sleeping cities. We would like to thank Mr Yann Farinaux for confirming the authenticity of this painting by means of a visual examination, as well as for writing this notice, dated 15 January 2025. A certificate will be issued to the buyer.