Anyone else seen the film "Seraphine"?

Well, if you haven't, AND, if like me you were ignorant of the work of this marvellous artist, here is some of her work.

This woman was born in the late 19th century in France, and was laboured as a cleaner, washerwoman and anything else she could lay her hands on.

She appears to have suffered from bi-polar disorder ( as far as I can work out from the film) and believed she was inspired from heaven to paint her spectacular neo-primitive, or naive, works...using pigments she invented herself (and which remain secret).

Her work was discovered by a German art collector and critic, Wilhelm Uhde, and eventually became well known (but not to me.) Uhde supported her as her patron for a period, but this experience appears to have triggered a severe relapse in her illness, resulting in a manic episode, and she was placed in an asylum, until her death.


One of the things that stands out in the film (apart from the art) was the spectacular hardness and physical strain of the labour done by working class people.


Some examples of her work:

(She is known both as Seraphine Louis and Seraphine de Senlis (the name of her village.)






















This appears to be a video of her work...since I have been throttled for exceeding my download limit, I can't really see it



Wikipedia version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Séraphine_Louis


Not everyone's cup of tea, of course, and these images doubtless do her little justice...but still.