Alfred Sisley
Encyclopedia
Alfred Sisley (30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist
landscape
painter
who was born and spent most of his life, in France
, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air
(i.e., outdoors). He never deviated into figure painting
and, unlike Renoir
and Pissarro
, never found that Impressionism did not fulfill his artistic needs.
Among his important works are a series of paintings of the River Thames
, mostly around Hampton, executed in 1874, and landscapes depicting places in or near Moret-sur-Loing
.
to affluent British parents. His father, William Sisley, was in the silk
business, and his mother Felicia Sell was a cultivated music connoisseur.
In 1857 at the age of 18 Sisley was sent to London
to study for a career in business; but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris in 1861. From 1862 he studied at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts
within the atelier
of Swiss artist Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre
, where he became acquainted with Frédéric Bazille
, Claude Monet
, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir
. Together they would paint landscapes en plein air
rather than in the studio, in order to realistically capture the transient effects of sunlight. This approach, innovative at the time, resulted in paintings more colorful and more broadly painted than the public was accustomed to seeing. Consequently, Sisley and his friends initially had few opportunities to exhibit or sell their work. Their works were usually rejected by the jury of the most important art exhibition
in France, the annual Salon. During the 1860s, though, Sisley was in a better financial position than some of his fellow artists, as he received an allowance from his father.
In 1866 Sisley began a relationship with Eugénie Lesouezec (1834–1898; also known as Marie Lescouezec), a Breton living in Paris. The couple produced two children: son Pierre (born 1867) and daughter Jeanne (1869). At the time Sisley lived not far from Avenue de Clichy and the Café Guerbois
, the gathering-place of many Parisian painters.
In 1868 his paintings were accepted at the Salon, but the exhibition did not bring him financial or critical success; nor did subsequent exhibitions.
In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War
began, and as a result Sisley's father's business failed and the painter's sole means of support became the sale of his works. For the remainder of his life he would live in poverty, as his paintings did not rise significantly in monetary value until after his death. Occasionally, however, Sisley would be backed by patrons; and this allowed him, among other things, to make a few brief trips to Britain.
The first of these occurred in 1874 after the first independent Impressionist exhibition. The result of a few months spent near London was a series of nearly twenty paintings of the Upper Thames
near Molesey, which was later described by art historian Kenneth Clark
as "a perfect moment of Impressionism."
Until 1880 Sisley lived and worked in the country west of Paris; then he and his family moved to a small village near Moret-sur-Loing
, close to the forest of Fontainebleau
, where the painters of the Barbizon school
had worked earlier in the century. Here, as art historian Anne Poulet has said, "the gentle landscapes with their constantly changing atmosphere were perfectly attuned to his talents. Unlike Monet, he never sought the drama of the rampaging ocean or the brilliantly colored scenery of the Côte d'Azur
."
In 1881 Sisley made a second brief voyage to Britain.
In 1897 Sisley and his partner visited Britain again, and were finally married in Cardiff
Register Office on 5 August. They stayed at Penarth
, where Sisley painted at least six oils of the sea and the cliffs. In mid-August they moved to the Osborne Hotel at Langland Bay
on the Gower Peninsula
, where he produced at least eleven oil-paintings in and around Langland Bay and Rotherslade Bay (then called Lady's Cove). They returned to France in October. This was Sisley's last voyage to his ancestral homeland. The National Museum Cardiff
possesses two of his oilpaintings of Penarth and Langland.
The following year Sisley applied for French citizenship, but was refused. A second application was made and supported by a police report, but illness intervened, and Sisley remained British till his death.
The painter died on 29 January 1899 in Moret-sur-Loing
at the age of 59, a few months after the death of his wife.
Sisley's student works are lost. His earliest known work, Lane near a Small Town, is believed to have been painted around 1864. His first landscape paintings are sombre, coloured with dark browns, greens, and pale blues. They were often executed at Marly
and Saint-Cloud
. Little is known about Sisley's relationship with the paintings of J. M. W. Turner
and John Constable
, which he may have seen in London, but some have suggested that these artists may have influenced his development as an Impressionist painter, as may have Gustave Courbet
and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
.
Among the Impressionists Sisley has been overshadowed by Monet, although his work most resembles that of Camille Pissarro
. Described by art historian Robert Rosenblum
as having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting", his work strongly invokes atmosphere, and his skies are always impressive. He concentrated on landscape more consistently than any other Impressionist painter.
Among Sisley's best-known works are Street in Moret and Sand Heaps, both owned by the Art Institute of Chicago
, and The Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing, shown at Musée d'Orsay
, Paris. Allée des peupliers de Moret (The Lane of Poplars at Moret) has been stolen three times from the Musée des Beaux-Arts
in Nice
- once in 1978 when on loan in Marseille (recovered a few days later in the city's sewers), again in 1998 (when the museum's curator was convicted of the theft and jailed for five years with two accomplices) and finally in August 2007 (on 4 June 2008 French police recovered it and three other stolen paintings from a van in Marseilles).
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
landscape
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
who was born and spent most of his life, in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air
En plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
(i.e., outdoors). He never deviated into figure painting
Figure painting
Figure painting is a form of the visual arts in which the artist uses a live model as the subject of a two-dimensional piece of artwork using paint as the medium. The live model can be either nude or partly or fully clothed and the painting is a representation of the full body of the model...
and, unlike Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
and Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, never found that Impressionism did not fulfill his artistic needs.
Among his important works are a series of paintings of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, mostly around Hampton, executed in 1874, and landscapes depicting places in or near Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.The town was a source of inspiration for Monet, Renoir and Sisley.-Twin towns:...
.
Biography
Sisley was born on 30 October 1839 in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to affluent British parents. His father, William Sisley, was in the silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
business, and his mother Felicia Sell was a cultivated music connoisseur.
In 1857 at the age of 18 Sisley was sent to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to study for a career in business; but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris in 1861. From 1862 he studied at the Paris École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
within the atelier
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
of Swiss artist Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre
Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre
Charles Gleyre , was a Swiss artist. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.His father and mother died when he was eight or nine...
, where he became acquainted with Frédéric Bazille
Frédéric Bazille
Jean Frédéric Bazille was a French Impressionist painter. Many of Bazille's major works are examples of figure painting in which Bazille placed the subject figure within a landscape painted en plein air....
, Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
. Together they would paint landscapes en plein air
En plein air
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors.Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school and Impressionism...
rather than in the studio, in order to realistically capture the transient effects of sunlight. This approach, innovative at the time, resulted in paintings more colorful and more broadly painted than the public was accustomed to seeing. Consequently, Sisley and his friends initially had few opportunities to exhibit or sell their work. Their works were usually rejected by the jury of the most important art exhibition
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
in France, the annual Salon. During the 1860s, though, Sisley was in a better financial position than some of his fellow artists, as he received an allowance from his father.
In 1866 Sisley began a relationship with Eugénie Lesouezec (1834–1898; also known as Marie Lescouezec), a Breton living in Paris. The couple produced two children: son Pierre (born 1867) and daughter Jeanne (1869). At the time Sisley lived not far from Avenue de Clichy and the Café Guerbois
Café Guerbois
Café Guerbois, on Avenue de Clichy in Paris, was the site of late 19th century discussions and planning amongst artists, writers and art lovers – the bohèmes , in contrast to the bourgeois....
, the gathering-place of many Parisian painters.
In 1868 his paintings were accepted at the Salon, but the exhibition did not bring him financial or critical success; nor did subsequent exhibitions.
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
began, and as a result Sisley's father's business failed and the painter's sole means of support became the sale of his works. For the remainder of his life he would live in poverty, as his paintings did not rise significantly in monetary value until after his death. Occasionally, however, Sisley would be backed by patrons; and this allowed him, among other things, to make a few brief trips to Britain.
The first of these occurred in 1874 after the first independent Impressionist exhibition. The result of a few months spent near London was a series of nearly twenty paintings of the Upper Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
near Molesey, which was later described by art historian Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians of his generation...
as "a perfect moment of Impressionism."
Until 1880 Sisley lived and worked in the country west of Paris; then he and his family moved to a small village near Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.The town was a source of inspiration for Monet, Renoir and Sisley.-Twin towns:...
, close to the forest of Fontainebleau
Forest of Fontainebleau
The forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne...
, where the painters of the Barbizon school
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
had worked earlier in the century. Here, as art historian Anne Poulet has said, "the gentle landscapes with their constantly changing atmosphere were perfectly attuned to his talents. Unlike Monet, he never sought the drama of the rampaging ocean or the brilliantly colored scenery of the Côte d'Azur
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
."
In 1881 Sisley made a second brief voyage to Britain.
In 1897 Sisley and his partner visited Britain again, and were finally married in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
Register Office on 5 August. They stayed at Penarth
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
, where Sisley painted at least six oils of the sea and the cliffs. In mid-August they moved to the Osborne Hotel at Langland Bay
Langland Bay
Langland Bay is a popular coastal holiday resort in Gower, near Swansea in south Wales. In the right conditions, it is one of the best surf beaches in Britain...
on the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
, where he produced at least eleven oil-paintings in and around Langland Bay and Rotherslade Bay (then called Lady's Cove). They returned to France in October. This was Sisley's last voyage to his ancestral homeland. The National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff
National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...
possesses two of his oilpaintings of Penarth and Langland.
The following year Sisley applied for French citizenship, but was refused. A second application was made and supported by a police report, but illness intervened, and Sisley remained British till his death.
The painter died on 29 January 1899 in Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing
Moret-sur-Loing is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.The town was a source of inspiration for Monet, Renoir and Sisley.-Twin towns:...
at the age of 59, a few months after the death of his wife.
Work
Marly
-France:* Marly, in the Moselle département* Marly, in the Nord département* Marly-Gomont, in the Aisne département* Marly-la-Ville, in the Val-d'Oise département...
and Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...
. Little is known about Sisley's relationship with the paintings of J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
and John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
, which he may have seen in London, but some have suggested that these artists may have influenced his development as an Impressionist painter, as may have Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
.
Among the Impressionists Sisley has been overshadowed by Monet, although his work most resembles that of Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
. Described by art historian Robert Rosenblum
Robert Rosenblum
Robert Rosenblum was an American art historian and curator known for his influential and often irreverent scholarship on European and American art of the mid-eighteenth to 20th century....
as having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting", his work strongly invokes atmosphere, and his skies are always impressive. He concentrated on landscape more consistently than any other Impressionist painter.
Among Sisley's best-known works are Street in Moret and Sand Heaps, both owned by the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, and The Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing, shown at Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
, Paris. Allée des peupliers de Moret (The Lane of Poplars at Moret) has been stolen three times from the Musée des Beaux-Arts
Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret
The ' in Nice, France at 33 av. des Baumettes was built in the former private mansion built in 1878 by the Ukrainian Princess, Elisabeth Vassilievna Kotschoubey. Named for the artist Jules Chéret who lived and worked in Nice during his final years, the museum opened in 1928.The museum houses a...
in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
- once in 1978 when on loan in Marseille (recovered a few days later in the city's sewers), again in 1998 (when the museum's curator was convicted of the theft and jailed for five years with two accomplices) and finally in August 2007 (on 4 June 2008 French police recovered it and three other stolen paintings from a van in Marseilles).
Selected works
- Lane near a Small Town (c. 1864)
- Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud (c. 1865)
- Village Street in Marlotte (1866)
- Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud (1867)
- Still Life with Heron (1867)
- The Seine at St. Mammes (1867–69)
- View of Montmartre from the cite des Fleurs (1869)
- Early Snow at Louveciennes (c. 1871–72)
- Boulevard Heloise, Argenteuil (1872)
- Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne (1872)
- Ferry to the Ile-de-la-Loge - Flood (1872)
- Footbridge at Argenteuil (1872)
- La Grande-Rue, Argenteuil (c. 1872)
- Square in Argenteuil (Rue de la Chaussee) (1872)
- Chemin de la Machine Louveciennes (1873)
- Factory in the Flood, Bougival (1873)
- Rue de la Princesse, Louveciennes (1873)
- Sentier de la Mi-cote, Louveciennes (1873)
- Among the Vines Louveciennes (1874)
- Bridge at Hampton CourtHampton Court BridgeHampton Court Bridge crosses the River Thames in England in a north to south direction between Hampton, Greater London and East Molesey, Surrey. It is on the reach above Teddington Lock and about hundred yards upstream of the bridge is Molesey Lock....
(1874) - The Lesson (1874)
- Molesey WeirMolesey LockMolesey Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England at East Molesey, Surrey. It is near Hampton Court Palace to the west of London.The lock was built by the City of London Corporation in 1815 and is the second longest on the river at over 268 ft . Beside the lock there are rollers for the...
- Morning (1874) - Regatta at Hampton CourtHampton Court and Dittons RegattaHampton Court and Dittons Regatta is a regatta on the River Thames in England which takes place at Thames Ditton, Surrey beside Hampton Court Palace....
(1874) - Regatta at MoleseyMolesey RegattaMolesey Regatta is a rowing regatta, on the River Thames in England which takes place at East Molesey, Surrey on the reach above Molesey Lock....
(1874) - Snow on the Road Louveciennes (1874)
- Under the Bridge at Hampton Court (1874)
- Street in Louveciennes (Rue de la Princesse) (1875)
- Small Meadows in Spring (c. 1881)
- Storr Rock, Lady's Cove, le soir (1897)
- On the cliffs, Langland Bay (1897)