Seraphine Louis

A French self-taught artist, a bright and extremely distinctive representative of Naïve art.

Seraphine’s works became a part of the “pure art” exhibitions in the 1920s in France and were also shown at many collective and personal exhibitions in Switzerland, Germany and the USA in 1945. A large collection of her works is in the A. Maillol Museum (Paris). An article about S. Louis is included in the extensive encyclopedia “Naive Art” (1984, a joint project between Yugoslavia and England). In 2008, the film “Seraphine” was presented in France; it received 7 prestigious Cesar Awards.

Key ideas:

– The works of Seraphine Louis, known as Séraphine of Senlis, are on the theme of nature: trees and fruits, flower panel compositions and bouquets. The self-taught artist and very pious village resident explained, “I do all this for the Virgin Mary, my still lifes are gifts of God and the Holy Mother, I see them when I sleep. This is how God comes to me; these are the fruits of paradise. This is how I see it”.

– It is quite fair to interpret repeating decorative elements, filling the entire canvas from edge to edge, full of color and light, as a reflection of the mental state, close to ecstasy, and sometimes equal to it. The bright radiant coloring of the paintings expresses delight. Also, the artist who did not reveal the secret of her palette created festive gamma not only with the help of professional paints, but also on the basis of Ripolin household white paint, which was revealed only after the expert review of the canvases. Having collected some more money, she used lacquer.

– Seraphine had a special compositional vision. Almost all her works contain a different order of objects in their lower fourth part. Fruits, leaves and flowers continue to flourish brightly below, while other elements – grass, darker leaves and roots – subconsciously invite you to the earthly world and even to the underworld, where everything is rooted or laid back.

– In the plots of the paintings, the most often object is a tree. It is a paradise tree, a tree of knowledge or a tree of life itself. Seraphine presents one of the most archaic in the folk art culture motifs as a spiritual and colorful living creature that can move its twigs and leaves. Her trees with fundamentally powerful trunks and lush crowns occupy the entire surface of the base. She adds shoots, feathers or flowers that resemble eyes to the real leaves and twigs.

– In the later period, when, as a result of complete impoverishment and shattered hopes for recognition and fame, the artist increasingly gained the signs of mental illness, her paintings became almost abstract, while the art itself became more painful and less accurate.

– Louis signed her works, scratching the name with a knife. The contrasting basis that appeared at the same time made it look like if she signed the work before drawing it.