Alfred Sisley

Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris

Katia Granoff, Paris (acquired from the above on December 1, 1938)

Mme. J. Laurentin, Paris

M. Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired from the above in April 1962)

Zimet Brothers, Oklahoma City (acquired from the above in January 1963)

Robert Hompe, Philadelphia

Sale: Christie’s New York, May 12, 1983, lot 15

Private Collection, New England (acquired at the above sale and sold: Christie’s, New York, November 9, 1994, lot 14)

Private Collection (acquired from the above sale and sold: Christie’s, New York, February 6, 2006, lot 61)

Acquired at the above sale

Ferrara, Palazzo de Diamanti; Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza & Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Poet of Impressionism, 2000-02, no. 68, illustrated p. 293

Tel Aviv Museum of Art (long-term loan 2003-05)

London, National Gallery & Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, Sisley in England and Wales, 2008-09, no. 13, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Gustave Geffroy, Sisley, Paris, 1927, illustrated p. 57

George Besson, Sisley, Paris, circa 1946, illustrated p. 60

Gotthard Jedlicka, Sisley, Bern, 1949, no. 31, illustrated p. 52

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 874, illustrated

Richard Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, no. 154, catalogued p. 192, illustrated p. 193

Very good condition. Original canvas. Under UV light, some retouching to the right edge, upper right and center and also in the left sky. An old thin vertical restoration can also be seen 2 inches from the left framing edge. The paint layer and surface is stable.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1897, Parisian-born artist Alfred Sisley took his final trip to his ancestral home of Britain. It was on this trip, on August 6th, when he at last married his long-term partner Eugenie Lescouzec after over thirty years of happy companionship. They travelled along the Welsh coast to Langland Bay for their honeymoon stay at the Osborne Hotel.

The Welsh beds made a great impact on the ever-exacting artist: “The beds have to be seen and felt to be believed – a mattress in two pieces stretched over a sort of coat of armour” (quoted in Christopher Riopelle & Ann Sumner, Sisley in England and Wales, 2008, p. 41). The landscape, however, struck a chord with Sisley and greatly appealed to his artistic sensibilities whenever the wind relented – the wind being a nuisance which he had ‘not encountered before’ (ibid., p. 41).

It seems to have been a particularly golden day when Sisley paused to paint Lady’s Cove, Langland Bay, Morning. The early sun streams from on high onto the cliff edge and shimmers softly in the turquoise and teal greens of the sea. The white wash hits the rocks in gentle clusters. Sisley found the sea in Langland Bay “superb and all the subjects interesting” (ibid., p. 41); the coastal scenes he painted during his stay would be the only seascape works in his entire oeuvre, a testament to quite how magnificent he found the place.

On Sisley’s return to France, with his Welsh coastal paintings in tow, Felix Pissarro excitedly wrote to his father: “[he has] done some splendid paintings by the sea, in a little corner of the world that hardly anyone had ever heard of: he is probably going to put on an exhibition” (quoted in Janine Bailly-Herzberg (ed.), Correspondence de Camille Pissarro, Paris, 1989, vol. IV, p. 397). At around the same time, an article in Le Journal expressed similarly avid anticipation: “The Impressionist master has brought back from Penarth and Langland Bay a series of admirable sea pieces, in which the strange flavor of that landscape, little frequented by painters, is rendered with an art that is as captivating as it is personal. We may shortly expect an influx of admirers to the celebrated painter’s studio at Moret” (ibid., p. 397).

The singular tranquility of the morning lull captured in Lady’s Cove, Langland Bay, Morning offers a unique reflection onto the artist’s private contentment. He had just wed the love of his life and was living in an enchantingly beautiful – though windy – part of the world. The painting, in its glorification of light, color and calm, is a magnificent expression of peace and compassion.