Alfred Sisley

Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist on June 27, 1885)

Durand-Ruel, New York (transferred from the above before 1891 and held until 1949) 

Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York

Acquired from the above in 1965

New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Works by Alfred Sisley, 1899, no.1

New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley, 1905, no. 4

New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Sisley Centennial, 1939, no. 7

(possibly) Santa Barbara Museum, Three Master French Impressionists: Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, 1941

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 480, illustrated (cropped image at both sides)

Sisley's depiction of the verdant surroundings of the French countryside exemplify the splendor of Impressionist landscape painting at its apex.  The present work was probably painted in the region Veneux-Nadon, where Sisley moved with his family in 1880.  Not far from Moret-sur-Loing, Sisley continued to live in this area for the rest of his life, moving several times between the two villages. The local scenery offered a constant source of inspiration to the artist, who 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 noted: "It is difficult to over-emphasise 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 Ile de France, the soft colours 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).

The exquisitely rendered sky that occupies a large section of the composition embodies the importance that the artist attached to this part of the landscape, as explained in a letter to his friend, the art critic Adolphe Tavernier: "The sky is not simply a background; its planes give depth (for the sky has planes, as well as solid ground), and the shapes of clouds give movement to a picture. What is more beautiful indeed than the summer sky, with its wispy clouds idly floating across the blue? What movement and grace! Don't you agree? They are like waves on the sea; one is uplifted and carried away" (quoted in Sisley (exhibition catalogue), Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1966, n.p.).