Sido(1980 — ?)
Sido
Allemagne, République démocratique allemande
7 min read
Sido (1835-1912) was the mother of the novelist Colette, who dedicated a celebrated autobiographical book to her published in 1930. An idealized maternal figure, she embodies the free-spirited woman, close to nature and to rural life in Burgundy.
Key Facts
- Born Sidonie Landoy in 1835 in Paris, died in 1912 in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye
- Mother of the novelist Gabrielle Colette, who held her in profound literary admiration
- Colette dedicated the autobiographical account Sido (1930) to her, an intimate and lyrical portrait
- Central character in Colette's My Mother's House (1922)
- A symbol of the free woman, passionate about nature and truth, throughout Colette's body of work
Works & Achievements
A collection of letters sent by Sido to her daughter over more than twenty years, bearing witness to her sharp wit, her humor, and her maternal love. They are the only direct record of Sido's own voice.
Sido created and tended a remarkable garden for decades — a true life's work immortalized by Colette. The garden embodies Sido's art of living, blending kitchen-garden crops, wildflowers, and a keen, attentive observation of nature.
A literary portrait of Sido written by Colette eighteen years after her mother's death. This autobiographical text is considered one of the most beautiful tributes to a maternal figure in French literature.
A collection of Colette's childhood memories in which Sido holds a central place. Colette describes her mother's personality and their Burgundian childhood home with both tenderness and precision.
Anecdotes
Sido was passionate about her garden in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, which she tended with an almost mystical devotion. Colette recounts how she would rise at dawn to observe her plants and could name every flower, every insect. This communion with nature left a profound mark on her daughter's writing.
Sido kept up a diligent correspondence with her daughter Colette, whose novels she refused to read out of modesty, yet whom she supported unconditionally. These letters, remarkable for their liveliness and candor, were published after her death and reveal a woman of sharp, free-spirited wit.
Despite the financial hardships that ruined the family following Captain Colette's mismanagement, Sido never lost her serenity or her pride. She was forced to leave the family home in Saint-Sauveur in 1891, an ordeal she bore with a dignity that Colette admired for the rest of her life.
Sido had a reputation for being an unconventional woman for her time: she spoke her mind plainly, held pointless bourgeois conventions in contempt, and instilled in her children a love of freedom, nature, and truth. These values would run through the entirety of Colette's literary work.
In her final years, weakened and nearly blind, Sido continued to write letters to Colette, scrawled in a trembling hand. These notes bear witness to an undiminished intellectual vitality and a maternal love that never wavered.
Primary Sources
She was small, and old, and beautiful. Her rain-colored eyes… I see them still, always seeking what sprouts, what buds, what rushes toward the light.
My mother would look up, checking that her blue iris stood straight, that the peony bled red without fading… She was the center and the soul of this house.
I write to you for the pleasure of it, to embrace you from afar. You are my dear daughter and I miss you every day. Take care of yourself as you will take care of your art.
I think of my mother every morning when I see the garden awakening. She taught me that nature is the only true lesson in life that holds.
Key Places
Sido's birthplace in 1835, at the time the main town of the Ardennes. The Landoy family was established here before Sido left the region to settle in Burgundy.
A Burgundian village where Sido spent most of her life and raised her children, including Colette. The family home and its legendary garden inspired a large part of the novelist's work.
The town where the Colette family moved after the forced sale of the Saint-Sauveur house in 1891. Sido spent her final years here and died in September 1912.
A central natural space in Sido's life and in Colette's memory. This enclosed garden, abundant with flowers and vegetables, is described with wonder in *Sido* and *La Maison de Claudine*.