Séraphine Louis

At a time when a concept of the living is to revive memories of connections between nature, spirituality, and feminism, Séraphine Louis (1864-1942), known as Séraphine de Senlis, emerges as a figure who foreshadowed contemporary trends linking creation, care, and ecology. Her flowers, trees, and fruits, painted with household pigments, bear witness to an organic and pragmatic relationship with her environment. Far from than mere admiration for nature, her work transforms nature into a subject of power, sublimation, and fervor. Séraphine de Senlis reveals the work of an extraordinary artist whose painting captures a realm beyond the tangible world.

Centre Pompidou-Metz is dedicating a first truly international retrospective to her, bringing together an exceptional collection of her paintings. Their compositions, initially fragile and ethereal, gradually adopt a swirling movement that draws the eye into a profusion of forms and colors. Spiky leaves resembling feathers encrusted with strange eyes, twisting branches, and sparkling corollas dotted with a multitude of hypnotic points seem to metamorphose under the influence of an inner energy, poised between obsession and wonder.