ALFRED SISLEY | Les bords du Loing à Moret

Desmond Fitzgerald, Brookline, Massachusetts (acquired by 1906. Sold by his estate: American Art Galleries, New York, Important Paintings by the Impressionists: The Fitzgerald Collection, 21st April 1927, lot 89) Howard Young Galleries, New York

Martha A. Alford, Boston (acquired from the above. Sold by her estate: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 21st March 1962, lot 68)

Carrie S. Beinecke, New York (sold by her estate: Christie's, New York, 18th October 1977, lot 21)

Geraldine Coles, USA (sold: Sotheby’s, London, 5th December 1979, lot 14)

Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris (purchased at the above sale)

Private Collection, Switzerland

The Lefevre Gallery (Alex Reid & Lefevre), London (acquired in 1984)

Jonathan Clark Ltd., London (acquired from the above in 1984)

Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1988

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (on loan 1906-1914)

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’ (Richard 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 light clouds, and their reflection on the water surface. 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).

 

The first recorded owner of Les bords du Loing à Moret was the British-American collector Desmond Fitzgerald (1846-1926). A successful engineer, Fitzgerald helped build railroads in the West and later played key roles in the development of water works in major American cities. He was an early supporter of both French and American Impressionists and became a friend of Monet, whom he frequently visited at Giverny. Next to his home in Brookline, Massachusetts Fitzgerald built a gallery that housed his extensive art collection and was frequently open to the public (fig. 1). After his death in 1926, Fitzgerald’s collection, including the present work as well as paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas and Pissarro, was sold in a two-day auction in New York in April 1927, and his gallery was later converted into a church which operates to this day.



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