This annotated catalog is divided into four distinct parts.
The first section contains a biography of Séraphine Louis that we wanted to be as accurate as possible and not fictionalized, supplemented by analyses of the artist's painted work, an analysis of Wilhelm Uhde's influence on her pictorial evolution, and a questioning of his true role in the tragic destiny that would lead Séraphine to madness.
The second part is devoted to attempting to explain the pathology that affected Séraphine Louis towards the end of her life. A dual scientific approach is therefore proposed, based on excerpts from the medical thesis presented in 1964 by Dr. Marie-Amélie Ortas-Perreti, entitled Séraphine, Peintre Aliénée (Séraphine, Insane Painter), as well as by Professor Patrick Martin-Mattera, psychoanalyst at the Freudian School, professor of psychopathology at the university and author of an essay entitled L’Art pour contrer la folie – Séraphine de Senlis, sans rivâle (Art to counter madness – Séraphine de Senlis, without rival), who offers an original text for this work, an approach entirely devoted to Séraphine.
The third section complements the previous one with the first-ever publication of letters written by Séraphine Louis after her admission to Clermont Hospital. For the sake of clarity for the reader, these letters have been “translated” by Maryline Clin, director of the Henri Theillou Museum in Senlis, and Françoise Cloarec, author of a book entitled Séraphine, published in 2008.
A section of documents completes and illustrates these first three sections. The fourth section is devoted to the annotated catalog of Séraphine Louis's painted work, with a detailed technical description for each painting, as mentioned in the introduction.