

THE GILDED AGE REVISITED: PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION
Writing about Sisley's paintings executed in this region, Vivienne Couldrey observes, "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. It is an area rich in historical associations" (Vivienne Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, Exeter, 1992, p. 33).
The dissonance between nature and industry within La Seine au point du jour is symbolic of the Impressionist motive to depict the modernity of their age. Impressionists thrived on the landscapes along the Seine, but needed to be close to Paris to maintain contact with galleries and fellow artists. Compared to his contemporaries, Sisley maintained a distance from industrialization that is expressed in the all-encompassing presence of the sky in La Seine au point du jour. The broad, vibrant strokes give the painting a vibrancy that breathes life into the scene.
Gustave Geffroy writes of Sisley’s landscapes, “The sky is vast, the air circulates, golden and delicate... Sisley is increasingly a painter of the sky, vast, peaceful skies quivering from the low horizon to the zenith with a soft, pink tone, with shades of pale blue” (Gustave Geffroy, "Alfred Sisley," in Les Cahiers d’aujourd’hui, Paris, 1923, pp. 13-14).