Séraphine Louis

1864-1942 · Senlis, France

A housekeeper in Senlis who cleaned by day and painted rapturous towers of fruit and feathers by candlelight, mixing colours to recipes she took to the grave.

The life

Orphaned young, Séraphine worked as a shepherdess, a convent domestic and a cleaner. The German collector Wilhelm Uhde, who had championed Henri Rousseau, discovered in 1912 that his own housekeeper painted at night, fuelled by faith and exhaustion. War separated them; he rediscovered her work in 1927 and showed her among his Painters of the Sacred Heart. The Depression ended his support, her fragile stability broke, and she spent her last decade in an asylum at Clermont, where she died in 1942.

The work

Ecstatic, pulsing canvases of fruit, leaves and feathers that seem lit from inside, painted in Ripolin house paint and secret home-made mixtures. The leaves have eyes if you look long enough. A César-winning 2008 film, Séraphine, carried her story worldwide.

Why we love them

She painted paradise on a cleaner’s wages. If you need a definition of making art against the odds, start here.

Go deeper

• Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
• The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.

Kindred spirits

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