ALFRED SISLEY | Les Noyers, effet de soleil couchant—premiers jours d'octobre

Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris (acquired by 1902)

Mme Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris (by descent from the above in 1914)

Durand-Ruel, Paris & Galeries Georges Petit, Paris (acquired from the above on February 1, 1919)

Galeries Georges Petit, Paris (acquired from the above by 1923)

Meyer Goodfriend, New York & Paris (and sold: American Art Association, New York, January 4-5, 1923, lot 115)

M.H. Bodenheimer, Paris (and sold by the estate: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 1, 1938, lot 38)

Schustermann Collection, Paris (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection, Paris 

Daniel Topping, New York

David Findlay Galleries, New York (and sold: Sotheby Park Bernet, New York, November 7, 1979, lot 543)

Private Collection, United States (acquired at the above sale)

Richard Green Fine Paintings, London

Acquired from the above

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Plaisirs de la campagne, 1954, no. 151

Notice sur la Collection J.-B. Faure, Paris, 1902, no. 111, catalogued p. 55 (titled Les Noyers)

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 471, illustrated n.p.

Raymond Cogniat, Sisley, New York, 1978, illustrated in color p. 64 

Alfred Sisley was superbly gifted with the ability to capture the fleeting effects of the environment and the subtlety of tonal changes of light. Here he has captured the setting sun and late evening glow with harmonious hues and impassioned brushstrokes. Since the 1870s, Sisley had been captivated by the beauty of rural France and took great enjoyment in painting the pastoral environment, capturing the varying effects of the seasons, weather and time of day, and their impact on light and color. A preeminent landscape painter whose artistic vision was directed by the natural world, Sisley had the profound ability to record the unique properties of light. The temporal and tonal challenges of chronicling light as it is filtered through the crisp fall air at dusk are particularly visible in Les Noyers, effet de soleil couchant–premiers jours d’octobre. The setting sun seems to animate the leaves and grass, as though they are caught in the passing breeze, to astonishing effect. In The Art Monthly Review of September 1876, poet and critic Stéphane Mallarmé described Sisley’s exceptional ability to capture these transitory effects: “Sisley seizes the passing moments of the day; watches the fugitive cloud and seems to paint it in its flight; on his canvass [sic] the live air moves and the leaves yet thrill and tremble” (quoted in MaryAnne Stevens, Alfred Sisley, Impressionist Master (exhibition catalogue), New Haven & London, 2017, p. 42). The dazzling, light-filled landscape Les Noyers, effet de soleil couchant–premiers jours d’octobre was painted by Sisley in Moret-sur-Loing in October 1882. The artist first moved with his family to Veneux-Nadon in 1880, and continued to live in that area for the remainder of his life, moving several times between villages before permanently settling in Moret-sur-Loing in 1889. The local scenery offered a constant source of inspiration as he tried to capture the relationship between land, water and sky as well as the changing effects of light on his surroundings. In her discussion of Sisley's paintings executed in this region, Vivienne Couldrey notes, "It is difficult to over-emphasize the importance of Moret, for Sisley painted most of his life's work in the area... It is an essentially Impressionist place with the gentle light of the Île-de-France, the soft colors and the constantly changing skies of northern France. There are green woods and pastures, curving tree-lined banks of rivers, canals and narrow streams, wide stretches of the river where the Loing joins the Seine at Saint-Mammès, old stone houses, churches and bridges" (V. Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, Exeter, 1992, p. 68).



This work will be included in the new edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of Alfred Sisley by François Daulte now being prepared at Galerie Brame & Lorenceau by the Comité Alfred Sisley.