Painted in Gerberoy in July 1923, La Roseraie au Crépuscule is both a reflection of Le Sidaner’s mature style and a deeply personal homage to Gerberoy, the village he transformed into his own creative sanctuary. The scene captures a secluded rose garden, framed by a floral archway and a softly glowing house beyond. It is a setting Le Sidaner knew intimately — part of his own garden, nurtured and shaped over years. This garden, with its lush vegetation and carefully curated views, appears in numerous works by the artist, forming a kind of visual diary of his life in Gerberoy.

Le Sidaner’s connection to the village was profound, and Gerberoy’s gardens became an extension of his artistic vision. Paintings such as Le Jardin blanc, Gerberoy (Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris) and La Table au Jardin, Gerberoy (Petit Palais, Geneva) offer further glimpses into this enchanted corner of France, each imbued with the same hushed reverence for nature and light.

 

The title of this exquisite work on paper, Crépuscule, meaning twilight, is significant. Inspired by light effects and reflections, Le Sidaner sought to capture his subjects bathed in a diverse range of light, as Monet had done before him. Sunlight, moonlight, and the artificial light of an interior setting appear throughout his oeuvre, but it is his glowing depictions of twilight that resonate with collectors of his work, past and present.

 

Twilight was Le Sidaner’s favoured hour, when the sun’s retreat leaves behind a world suspended between day and night. For Le Sidaner, this fleeting moment carried emotional weight — it was the hour of reflection, when landscapes glowed with the memory of sunlight even as shadows crept in. The art critic and writer Camille Mauclair described this time of day, when the dying rays of sunlight fill the atmosphere with a soft, ethereal haze, as “Le Sidaner’s time”. This fascination with transitional light — neither full daylight nor complete darkness — allowed him to heighten the emotional tenor of his work, inviting viewers into a world where time seems to hover, just for a moment.

 

In La Roseraie au Crépuscule, this sense of suspension is heightened by the softly glowing windows of the house behind the roses. The warm interior light spills out into the garden, forming a counterpoint to the cool tones of the foliage. This device — the lit window glimpsed through a garden — recurs often in Le Sidaner’s work, symbolising both comfort and distance, intimacy and separation.

 

Executed with a delicate combination of gouache, coloured pencils, and pastel, this work demonstrates Le Sidaner’s remarkable command of diverse media. Gouache, with its matte opacity, allows him to build up soft, velvety layers, while pastel adds texture and highlights, particularly on the petals of the roses and the luminous sky. Coloured pencils, used sparingly, bring precision to certain architectural details, such as the window frame or the outline of the arch. The result is a surface that seems to breathe with life, shimmering softly between solidity and dissolving light.

 

True to his artistic sensibility, Le Sidaner avoids bright primaries in favour of muted pinks, greys, greens, and opals. The roses, despite their profusion, are not sharply defined; they blur into the foliage, a haze of colour rather than a bouquet of individual blooms. This deliberate soft focus enhances the dreamlike quality of the scene. The sky, tinged with the last warmth of daylight, sets a gentle counterbalance to the cool greens of the grass and hedge. The glowing windows — in tones of soft gold — act as a focal point, drawing the eye inward and anchoring the composition.

 

La Roseraie au Crépuscule is a masterful distillation of Henri Le Sidaner’s artistic vision. It exemplifies his ability to transform the familiar — a garden path, a window, a cluster of roses — into something almost mythic, a landscape not just seen, but felt. This painting stands as both a significant work within Le Sidaner’s oeuvre and a deeply personal reflection on place and time. Its gentle poetry and skilful handling of light offer a quiet yet profound reminder of why Le Sidaner remains one of the most evocative painters of his generation.