10
10

WORKS FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION, SOLD IN PART TO BENEFIT TWO NOT-FOR-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS IN THE FIELDS OF SCIENCE AND MUSIC

Alfred Sisley
LES HAUTES EAUX À MORET-SUR-LOING
Estimate
Irrevocable Bids
Lots with this symbol indicate that a party has provided Sotheby’s with an irrevocable bid on the lot that will be executed during the sale at a value that ensures that the lot will sell. The irrevocable bidder, who may bid in excess of the irrevocable bid, will be compensated based on the final hammer price in the event he or she is not the successful bidder or may receive a fixed fee in the event he or she is the successful bidder. If the irrevocable bidder is the successful bidder, the fixed fee (if applicable) for providing the irrevocable bid may be netted against the irrevocable bidder’s obligation to pay the full purchase price for the lot and the purchase price reported for the lot shall be net of such fixed fee. If the irrevocable bid is not secured until after the printing of the auction catalogue, a pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that there is an irrevocable bid on the lot. If the irrevocable bidder is advising anyone with respect to the lot, Sotheby’s requires the irrevocable bidder to disclose his or her financial interest in the lot. If an agent is advising you or bidding on your behalf with respect to a lot identified as being subject to an irrevocable bid, you should request that the agent disclose whether or not he or she has a financial interest in the lot.
Guaranteed Property
Guaranteed Property. The seller of lots with this symbol has been guaranteed a minimum price from one auction or a series of auctions. If every lot in a catalogue is guaranteed, the Conditions of Sale will so state and this symbol will not be used for each lot.
1,200,000 — 1,800,000
USD
LOT SOLD. 1,340,000 USD
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10

WORKS FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION, SOLD IN PART TO BENEFIT TWO NOT-FOR-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS IN THE FIELDS OF SCIENCE AND MUSIC

Alfred Sisley
LES HAUTES EAUX À MORET-SUR-LOING
Estimate
Irrevocable Bids
Lots with this symbol indicate that a party has provided Sotheby’s with an irrevocable bid on the lot that will be executed during the sale at a value that ensures that the lot will sell. The irrevocable bidder, who may bid in excess of the irrevocable bid, will be compensated based on the final hammer price in the event he or she is not the successful bidder or may receive a fixed fee in the event he or she is the successful bidder. If the irrevocable bidder is the successful bidder, the fixed fee (if applicable) for providing the irrevocable bid may be netted against the irrevocable bidder’s obligation to pay the full purchase price for the lot and the purchase price reported for the lot shall be net of such fixed fee. If the irrevocable bid is not secured until after the printing of the auction catalogue, a pre-lot announcement will be made indicating that there is an irrevocable bid on the lot. If the irrevocable bidder is advising anyone with respect to the lot, Sotheby’s requires the irrevocable bidder to disclose his or her financial interest in the lot. If an agent is advising you or bidding on your behalf with respect to a lot identified as being subject to an irrevocable bid, you should request that the agent disclose whether or not he or she has a financial interest in the lot.
Guaranteed Property
Guaranteed Property. The seller of lots with this symbol has been guaranteed a minimum price from one auction or a series of auctions. If every lot in a catalogue is guaranteed, the Conditions of Sale will so state and this symbol will not be used for each lot.
1,200,000 — 1,800,000
USD
LOT SOLD. 1,340,000 USD
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Details & Cataloguing

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale

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Alfred Sisley
1839 - 1899
LES HAUTES EAUX À MORET-SUR-LOING
Signed Sisley. (lower left)
Oil on canvas
21 1/4 by 28 3/4 in.
54 by 73 cm
Painted in 1879.
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This work will be included in the new edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of Alfred Sisley by François Daulte now being prepared by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau for the Comité Alfred Sisley.

Provenance

Madame Émile Michaut, Paris

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the above on January 3, 1903)

Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris & New York (acquired from the above on January 13, 1903)

Alexandre Louis Philippe Marie Berthier, Fourth Prince of Wagram, France 

Jos Hessel, France 

Durand-Ruel, New York & Paris (acquired from the above in 1916)

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Meeker, Chicago (acquired from the above on April 28, 1917)

Arthur Meeker, Jr., Chicago (by descent from the above)

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York

Mr. & Mrs. Albert J. Dreitzer, New York (acquired by 1966 and sold: Sotheby’s, New York, November 13, 1985, lot 5)

Acquired at the above sale

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, Cent tableaux par Boudin, Jongkind, Lépine, Sisley, 1903, no. 87 

New York, Wildenstein & Co., Sisley, 1966, no. 40, illustrated in the catalogue

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Summer Loan Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from Private Collections, 1966, no. 167

Literature

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 337, illustrated n.p.

Catalogue Note

Completed in 1879, Les Hautes eaux à Moret-sur-Loing is among the first works Sisley painted in the sleepy, charming town outside of Paris that preoccupied Sisley at the height of his career. Sisley spent most of his final two decades living in and around Moret and was buried in the village upon his death in 1899. In an 1881 letter to Monet, Sisley described his attraction to the town: “Moret is two hours’ journey from Paris, and has plenty of space to rent at 600 to 1,000 francs. There is a market once a week, a pretty church, and a beautiful scenery around it. If you were thinking of moving, why not come and see?”


Moret-sur-Loing suited Sisley’s artistic inclinations and meditative, pure style of landscape Impressionism; a sparsely populated village along the poplar-lined Loing and Seine rivers with a scattering of neo-Gothic architecture and a full range of seasons, Moret-sur-Loing provided Sisley with a wealth of natural variety to explore through painting (see fig. 1). Reflecting on the inspiration he draws from the French village, Sisley wrote: “It is in Moret, amid this dense nature, with its tall poplars and the beautiful transparent, changing waters of the Loing…that my art has undoubtedly developed most…I will never really leave this place that is so picturesque” (Letter from Alfred Sisley to Adolphe Tavernier, January 9, 1892). The present work, with the light hitting the rising waters of the Loing, captures this spirit via a calm, restrained meditation on light and water. Sisley “adhered throughout his career to the style of divided light and color, momentary effects of illumination, and an acute responsiveness to the atmosphere that are signature aspects of Impressionism. He dutifully painted en plein air in all manner of weather… in exhaustive detail, in all seasons, and under everchanging skies. On occasion he might address nature’s unpredictability… but there are few theatrics in this circumscribed art, simply an unwavering devotion to his beloved landscapes” (P.C. Sutton & B. Monnier, Alfred Sisley: Impressionist Master (exhibition catalogue), Greenwich, Connecticut, 2017, p. 18).

Fig. 1

Alfred Sisley, Le Loing à Moret, en été, oil on canvas, 1891, sold: Sotheby's, London, February 5, 2007, lot 49 for $5,746,135

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