Alfred Sisley

Recognized as the most consistent of the Impressionist painters of nineteenth century France, Alfred Sisley exercised a singular focus throughout the course of his career as a painter of landscapes en plein air. His most noteworthy masterpieces include works inspired by the artist’s admiration of particular areas along the River Thames, as well as an appreciation for the landscape surrounding Moret-sur-Loing in Northern France.

Born in Paris in 1839, Alfred Sisley was the son of an affluent British couple whose own financial resources would help support Sisley in the beginning stages of his art career. The artist spent most of his life in France, though he never renounced his British citizenship. In 1857 he was sent to London to study business, but gave up this pursuit a few years later, recognizing his desire to pursue a career as a painter instead. He returned to Paris in 1861 to pursue formal training as an artist, studying at Ecole de Beaux Arts and under the direction of Swiss painter Marc Charles Gabriel Gleyre, who also offered instruction to many of Sisley’s contemporaries. Through his association with Gleyre, Alfred Sisley formed friendships with fellow Impressionist painters, Renoir, Monet and Bazille.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Sisley never deviated from his preference for painting landscapes in the open air Impressionistic style. While other artists of the day varied subject matter as well as technique through different stages, Sisley remained passionate about his own painting style throughout his entire career.

The practice of painting en plein air, instituted as an integral part of the Impressionist movement, resulted in a greater use of color and light play than the general public was accustomed to seeing at the time. As a result, the landscapes of Alfred Sisley have garnered much more attention and critical acclaim posthumously than they did during the artist’s own lifetime. An allowance from his parents supported him financially until the onset of the Franco-Prussian War caused his father’s business to fail. From that point, the artist would depend upon the sale of his works as income, and would unfortunately spend much of the rest of his life in poverty.

Sisley’s work finally gained acceptance into the Salon exhibition of 1868, though this did not bring the artist much by way of critical acclaim. The exposure did, however, eventually lead to occasional instances of patron-backing; a circumstance which led the artist back to Britain on various occasions, where he would paint some of his most admired landscape paintings featuring areas along the River Thames.

Many of Alfred Sisley’s paintings, described as “textbook perfect” examples Impressionist landscapes, are defined by the artist’s fascination with nuances of sky. Lane Near a Small Town is the artist’s first painting of note, while his most recognized paintings include Sand Heaps, Street in Moret, and The Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing. A painting familiarly known as The Lane of Poplars at Moret has been one of the most frequently stolen artworks in history, though it now resides safely in the collection at Musee de Beaux Arts in Nice.