Table

Henri Le Sidaner's 'Table' (1901) is a characteristic subject by the French painter who became the master of the intimate, light-filled table — his depictions of tables set for meals, viewed in gardens or through windows, with the objects on them rendered in the soft, diffused light of a specific time of day, created a body of work of extraordinary sensory intimacy. His 'Table' subjects occupied a distinctive position between the still life and the intimist interior, the table as both a domestic object and a vehicle for exploring the quality of light at specific times of day.

Le Sidaner renders the table with his characteristic post-Impressionist intimism — the specific objects on the table (plates, glasses, flowers, food) dissolved somewhat in the quality of light that was the painting's true subject. His handling of the diffused, often twilight or dawn light on the table surface creates the specific atmospheric quality that defined his approach: not the detailed inventory of the still life but the impression of a domestic moment defined by its quality of light.