Seraphine louis biography of christopher

French painter

Séraphine Louis, known as Séraphine de Senlis (Séraphine of Senlis; 3 September – 11 December ), was a French painter in the Outsider art.^[1] Self-taught, she was inspired by her religious faith and by stained-glass church windows and other religious art.

The intensity of her images, both in colour and replicative design, is sometimes interpreted as a reflection of her own psyche, walking a tightrope between ecstasy and mental illness.

Early life

Louis was born in Arsy (Oise) on 3 September Her father was a manual laborer and her mother came from a farmworking background.

Louis's mother died on her first birthday and her father, who remarried, also died before she was seven; at which point, she came under the charge of her eldest sister.

Seraphine louis biography of christopher columbus Article Talk. Artwork is an integral part of most religious liturgies, by way of ritual objects used during cer In , the Senlis Museum held her first solo show. Beginning in , she was employed as a housekeeper for middle-class families in the town of Senlis.

She first worked as a shepherdess but, by , she was engaged as a domestic worker at the convent of the Sisters of Providence in Clermont, Oise. Beginning in , she was employed as a housekeeper for middle-class families in the town of Senlis.

Career

In addition to her arduous day jobs, Louis painted by candlelight, largely in secret isolation, until her considerable body of work was discovered in by German art collector Wilhelm Uhde.^[2] While in Senlis, Uhde saw a still-life of apples at his neighbor's house and was astonished to learn that Louis, his housecleaner, was the artist.^[3] His support had barely begun to lift her horizons when he was forced to leave France in August ; the war between France and Germany had made him an unwelcome outsider in Senlis, much as Louis was, given her eccentric persona.

They only re-established contact in when Uhde – back in France and living in Chantilly – visited an exhibition of local artists in Senlis and, seeing Louis's work, realized that she had survived and her art had flourished. Under Uhde's patronage, Louis began painting large canvases, some of them two meters high, and she achieved prominence as the naïve painter of her day.

In , Uhde organized an exhibition, "Painters of the Sacred Heart," that featured Louis's art, launching her into a period of financial success she had never known – and was ill prepared to manage. Then, in , with the effects of the Great Depression destroying the finances of her patrons, Uhde had no choice but to stop buying her paintings.

Death

In , Louis was admitted for chronic psychosis at Clermont's lunatic asylum, where her artistry found no outlet. Although Uhde reported that she had died in ,^[4] some ^[who?] say that Louis actually lived until in a hospital annex at Villers-sous-Erquery, where she died friendless and alone.^[3] She was buried in a common grave.

After

Uhde continued to exhibit her work: in , at the exhibition "The Modern Primitives" in Paris; in –38 in an exhibition titled "The Popular Masters of Reality" which showed in Paris, Zurich, and New York (at the Museum of Modern Art); in , at the "Primitives of the 20th Century" exhibition in Paris, and finally, in , in a solo exhibition of her work in Paris.

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Works

Louis's works are predominantly rich fantasies of intensely repeated and embellished floral arrangements. She used colours and pigments that she made herself from unusual and exotic ingredients she never revealed that have stood the test of time for durable vividness. Her paintings' surfaces have a matte, almost waxy appearance.

Sometimes her signature (typically "S.

Seraphine louis biography of christopher Villa Vassilieff - 21, avenue du Maine Paris France — info[at]aware-art[. Camille Bombois - Lowry - Feuilles Seraphine Louis

Louis") was carved by knife, revealing a ground of contrasting colour. In some cases, she appears to have signed her paintings before painting them.

Louis was an artist consumed by an irrepressible urge to create, "this famous internal necessity of which Kandinsky spoke", terms employed by Bertrand Lorquin, conservator of the Musée Maillol in his introduction to the exhibition "Séraphine Louis dite Séraphine de Senlis" at the Musée Maillol in Paris, which ran from 1 October to 18 May

Legacy

Louis's paintings are exhibited in the Musée d'art de Senlis, the Musée d'art naïf in Nice, and the Musée d'Art moderne Lille Métropole in Villeneuve-d'Ascq.

In , the French biographical film Séraphine by director Martin Provost won seven César Awards, including Best Film and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau who starred in the title role. The film explores the relationship between Louis and Wilhelm Uhde from their first encounter in until her days in the Clermont Asylum.^[5]

References

Bibliography

• Wilhelm Uhde, Cinq Maitres Primitifs, pp.&#;–, Librairie Palmes (3, place Saint-Sulpice, Paris), Philippe Daudy Editeur, Paris,
• H M Gallot Séraphine, bouquetiére 'sans rivale' des fleurs maudites de l'instinct in L'Information artistique, N° 40, Etude de, pp 32, mai
• Jean-Pierre Foucher, Séraphine de Senlis, Éditions du Temps, coll., Paris, , pp
• Alain Vircondelet, Séraphine de Senlis, Albin Michel, coll., Une Vie, Paris, , pp , 8 p.

  de planches illustrées.

• Alain Vircondelet, Séraphine&#;: de la peinture à la folie, éditions Albin Michel, Paris, , pp
• Françoise Cloarec, Séraphine&#;: la vie rêvée de Séraphine de Senlis, Éditions Phébus, Paris, , pp , 8 p.
  Seraphine louis biography of christopher cross She used colours and pigments that she made herself from unusual and exotic ingredients she never revealed that have stood the test of time for durable vividness. Early life [ edit ]. My almost silent retreat in Britanny. Mykhailo Boychuk -

  de planches illustrées .

• Marie-Jo Bonnet, Séraphine Louis, un génie singulier, LM, Lesbia mag, N° , décembre
• Catalogue de l'exposition Séraphine de Senlis, présentée à Paris, du 1st octobre au 5 janvier , par la Fondation Dina Vierny et le Musée Maillol, avec la collaboration de la ville de Senlis.

  Textes de Bertrand Lorquin, Wilhelm Uhde et Jean-Louis Derenne. Publication&#;: éditions Gallimard, Fondation Dina Vierny et Musée Maillol, Paris, , pp 55, (Gallimard) ou (Fondation Dina Vierny et Musée Maillol).

External links