ALFRED SISLEY | Bourse d'affrètement de la Batellerie, Saint-Mammès or Maisons au bord du Loing

Blot Collection (acquired by 1954) Galerie Schmit, Paris

Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., London (acquired from the above in 1968)

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1968

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., Recent Acquisitions XXIII, 1968, no. 16, illustrated in the catalogue  London, Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd., Paintings by Boudin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, 1972, no. 20, illustrated in the catalogue

London, David Carritt Ltd., Alfred Sisley, 1981, no. 17, illustrated in the catalogue 

Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Munch et la France, 1991-92, no. 63, illustrated in colour in the catalogue 

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Lusanne, 1959, no. 697, illustrated  Raymond Cogniat, Sisley, Paris, 1978, illustrated in colour p. 63 

Les Amis d'Alfred Sisley, Alfred Sisley à Moret-sur-Loing, Veneux, Saint-Mammès, itinéraire de ses toiles, Moret-sur-Loing, 1989, no. 18, a detail illustrated

During the 1880s and 1890s Sisley painted a series of works from different vantage points along the banks of the Loing. ‘[Sisley] was indefatigable in his exploration of the Loing, wide and shallow as it passed under the old bridge at Moret, deepening and curving as, joined first by the canal du Loing and, almost immediately afterwards, by the energetic stream of the Orvanne, it flowed towards Saint-Mammès and out into the Seine. Each adjoining area satisfied the variety of needs within Sisley’s visual temperament’ (R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 144). Here, Sisley clearly took joy in depicting the splendour of nature, using quick, lively brush-strokes for the rich vegetation and cool blue tones to render the freshness of open air. Executed with a remarkable lightness of his brush, the tree and the water appear to be gently moving in the breeze of a summer day. Sisley first moved with his family to Veneux-Nadon near Moret-sur-Loing in 1880, and continued to live in that 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 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).



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