Lot 7

Alfred Sisley

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Description

Alfred Sisley
BORDS DE SEINE À BOUGIVAL
signed Sisley and dated 74 (lower left)
oil on canvas
34.5 by 55cm.
13 1/2 by 21 5/8 in.

Provenance

Catholina Lambert, New York (sale: American Art Association, Hotel Plaza, New York, 21st-24th February 1916, lot 42)
Durand-Ruel, New York (purchased at the above sale)
Percy Moore Turner, London (acquired from the above in October 1929)
Acquired by the family of the present owner in the 1930s

Exhibited

New York, Durand-Ruel, Sisley, 1921, no. 16
Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Le Grand siècle, 1936, no. 62
Marly-le-Roi, Louveciennes, Musée-Promenade, De Renoir à Vuillard, Marly-le-Roi, Louveciennes, leurs environs, 1984, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Galerie Schmit, Maîtres français, XIXème - XXème siècles, 1989, no. 47, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Literature

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 111, illustrated

Catalogue Note

After the Prussian siege of Paris in 1871, Sisley decided to move with his family to the village of Louveciennes, situated on the river Seine, about thirty kilometres west of the capital. During his time there, Sisley painted a number of scenes of the village, its winding streets and tree-lined roads, and often went for long walks to the neighbouring Bougival, Villeneuve-la-Garenne, Argenteuil and Ile de la Grande-Jatte, exploring the region in search for new subjects. This new setting provided Sisley with a new creative impetus and, once settled, he started working with fresh energy. He explored the beauty of the Seine valley, and took delight in painting this new environment, trying to capture the effects of season, weather and time of day on the countryside. Painted in 1874, the year of the First Impressionist exhibition, the present work is a beautiful example of Sisley's experiments with the effects of light and colour, the principal concerns of Impressionists.

Writing about Sisley’s paintings executed in this region, Vivienne Couldrey observed: ‘In the area of Louveciennes along the valley of the Seine he found waiting for him the kind of landscape he was to love all his life. Westward from Paris the Seine winds in large loops through Suresnes, Villeneuve-la-Garenne, Argenteuil, Bougival, Sèvres, Ville d’Avray, Louveciennes, Noisy-le-Roi, Port-Marly; the villages are strung along the river, clustered around Versailles’ (V. Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, Exeter, 1992, p. 33).