La fontaine aux Tuileries

La fontaine aux Tuileries from 1900 finds Le Sidaner in the formal gardens of the Tuileries in Paris, rendering one of the city's celebrated public spaces through his intimist lens. The Tuileries gardens, with their geometric allées and stone fountains, were a public amenity beloved of Parisians and tourists alike — but Le Sidaner finds in them the same private, contemplative mood he discovered in Gerberoy's village gardens. The Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne holds this work, representing the urban dimension of Le Sidaner's garden subjects.

The stone fountain basin reflects the sky in Le Sidaner's characteristic soft-focus manner, reflections dissolving into pools of pale color rather than crisp optical images. The surrounding trees and parterres are handled with his typical hazy, layered touch, the formal garden geometry softened almost to the point of dissolution.