Séraphine

Last night I went to see the film about the visionary artist, Séraphine Louis who lived in Senlis, north of Paris. I made a pilgrimage to Senlis this spring after making a note of the lovely village, the setting for another of my favourite films, King of Hearts with Alan Bates that I saw many years ago as a student.

The film is beautiful- very slow, very poetic, few words. It's a tribute to a woman who struggled through a difficult life, but nevertheless found peace and inspiration in nature which inspired her to paint mystical images of great power. She is known to us thanks to the German collector Wilhelm Uhde, who was also the first collector of Picasso and discovered Henri Rousseau. She was his housekeeper.