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'{{short description|19th-century French painter}} {{redirect|Sisley}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}} {{Infobox artist | name = Alfred Sisley | image = Alfred_Sisley_photo_full.jpg | caption = Alfred Sisley, 10 March 1863 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1839|10|30}} | birth_place = Paris, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1899|1|29|1839|10|30}} | death_place = [[Moret-sur-Loing]], France | nationality = British | field = Painting | training = [[Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre]] | movement = [[Impressionism]] | works = | patrons = | awards = }} '''Alfred Sisley''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|l|i}}; {{IPA-fr|sislɛ|lang}}; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] [[Landscape art|landscape]] painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape ''[[en plein air]]'' (i.e., outdoors). He deviated into [[figure painting]] only rarely and, unlike [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]] and [[Camille Pissarro|Pissarro]], found that Impressionism fulfilled his artistic needs. Among his important works are a series of paintings of the [[River Thames]], mostly around [[Hampton Court]], executed in 1874, and landscapes depicting places in or near [[Moret-sur-Loing]]. The notable paintings of the [[Seine]] and its bridges in the former suburbs of Paris are like many of his landscapes, characterised by tranquillity, in pale shades of green, pink, purple, dusty blue and cream. Over the years Sisley's power of expression and colour intensity increased.<ref name="autogenerated1999">[[Richard Shone]]: ''Sisley.'' London: Phaidon Press 1999. {{ISBN|0-7148-3892-6}}</ref> ==Biography== [[File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir 108.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], ''Alfred Sisley and his Wife'', 1868]] [[File:Alfred Sisley - Molesey Weir, Hampton Court - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Molesey Weir]] – Morning'', one of the paintings executed by Sisley on his visit to Britain in 1874]] [[File:Alfred Sisley - Rest along the Stream. Edge of the Wood - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Resting by a Stream at the Edge of the Wood]]'', 1878, [[Musée d'Orsay]] ]] Sisley was born in Paris to affluent British parents. His father, William Sisley, was in the silk business, and his mother, Felicia Sell, was a cultivated music connoisseur. In 1857, at the age of 18, Alfred Sisley was sent to London to study for a career in business, but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris in 1861. From 1862, he studied at the Paris [[École des Beaux-Arts]] within the [[studio|''atelier'']] of Swiss artist [[Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre]], where he became acquainted with [[Frédéric Bazille]], [[Claude Monet]] and [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]]. Together they would paint landscapes ''[[en plein air]]'' rather than in the studio, in order to capture the transient effects of sunlight realistically. This approach, innovative at the time, resulted in paintings more colourful and more broadly painted than the public was accustomed to seeing. Consequently, Sisley and his friends initially had few opportunities to exhibit or sell their work. Their works were usually rejected by the jury of the most important [[art exhibition]] in France, the annual [[Salon (Paris)|Salon]]. During the 1860s, though, Sisley was in a better financial position than some of his fellow artists, as he received an allowance from his father. In 1866, Sisley began a relationship with Eugénie Lescouezec (1834–1898; usually known as Marie Lescouezec), a Breton living in Paris. The couple had two children: son Pierre (born 1867) and daughter Jeanne (1869).<ref>Turner 2000, pp.&nbsp;400–401.</ref> At the time, Sisley lived not far from Avenue de Clichy and the [[Café Guerbois]], the gathering-place of many Parisian painters. In 1868, his paintings were accepted at the Salon, but the exhibition did not bring him financial or critical success; nor did subsequent exhibitions.<ref name="autogenerated1999"/> In 1870, the [[Franco-Prussian War]] began; as a result, Sisley's father's business failed, and the painter's sole means of support became the sale of his works. For the remainder of his life he would live in poverty, as his paintings did not rise significantly in monetary value until after his death.<ref>Denvir 2000, p. 265.</ref> Occasionally, however, Sisley would be backed by patrons, and this allowed him, among other things, to make a few brief trips to Britain. The first of these occurred in 1874, after the first independent Impressionist exhibition. The result of a few months spent south-west of London was a series of nearly twenty paintings of the non-tidal [[River Thames|Thames]] at East [[Molesey]] and below its [[Hampton Court Bridge]] where the south bank becomes [[Thames Ditton]] which was later described by art historian [[Kenneth Clark]] as "a perfect moment of Impressionism." Until 1880, Sisley lived and worked in the country west of Paris; then he and his family moved to a small village near [[Moret-sur-Loing]], close to the [[forest of Fontainebleau]], where the painters of the [[Barbizon school]] had worked earlier in the century. Here, as art historian [[Anne Poulet]] has said, "the gentle landscapes with their constantly changing atmosphere were perfectly attuned to his talents. Unlike Monet, he never sought the drama of the rampaging ocean or the brilliantly colored scenery of the [[French Riviera|Côte d'Azur]]."<ref>Poulet 1979, p. 77.</ref> In 1881, Sisley made a second brief voyage to [[Great Britain]]. In 1897, Sisley and his partner visited Britain again, and were finally married in [[Wales]] at [[Cardiff]] Register Office on 5 August.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1998/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120911030421/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1998/|archive-date=11 September 2012|url-status=dead|title=A Sisley painting of the south Wales coast &#124; Rhagor|access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> They stayed at [[Penarth]], where Sisley painted at least six oils of the sea and the cliffs. In mid-August they moved to the Osborne Hotel at [[Langland Bay]] on the [[Gower Peninsula]], where he produced at least eleven oil paintings in and around Langland Bay and [[Rotherslade]] (then called Lady's Cove). They returned to France in October. This was Sisley's last voyage to his ancestral homeland. The [[National Museum Cardiff]] possesses two of his oil paintings of Penarth and Langland. The following year Sisley applied for French citizenship, but was refused. A second application was made and supported by a police report, but illness intervened,<ref>BBC Radio 4 6 November 2008, Misfits in France</ref> and Sisley remained a British national until his death. He died on 29 January 1899 of throat cancer in [[Moret-sur-Loing]] at the age of 59, a few months after the death of his wife. His body was buried with that of his wife at Moret-sur-Loing Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7132/alfred-sisley|title=Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) - Find A Grave Memorial|website=www.findagrave.com|access-date=22 October 2020}}</ref> ==Work== [[Image:Allee de chataigniers - Alfred Sisley.jpg|thumb|''Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud'', 1865]] Sisley's student works are lost. His first landscape paintings are sombre, coloured with dark browns, greens, and pale blues. They were often executed at [[Château de Marly|Marly]] and [[Saint-Cloud]]. Little is known about Sisley's relationship with the paintings of [[J. M. W. Turner]] and [[John Constable]], which he may have seen in London, but some have suggested that these artists may have influenced his development as an Impressionist painter,<ref>Turner 2000, p. 401.</ref> as may have [[Gustave Courbet]] and [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]]. [[File:Sisley la seine au point du jour 1877.jpg|thumbnail|''La Seine au point du jour'', 1877, [[Musée Malraux]], [[Le Havre]]]] He was inspired by the style and subject matter of previous modern painters Camille Pissarro and Edouard Manet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Haine|first1=Scott|title=The History of France|year=2000|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0-313-30328-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyoffrance00hain/page/112 112]|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffrance00hain/page/112}}</ref> Among the Impressionists, Sisley has been overshadowed by Monet, whose work his resembles in style and subject matter, although Sisley's effects are more subdued.<ref>Bomford et al. 1990, p. 203.</ref> Described by art historian [[Robert Rosenblum]] as having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting",<ref>Rosenblum 1989, p.&nbsp;306.</ref> his work strongly invokes atmosphere, and his skies are always impressive. He concentrated on landscape more consistently than any other Impressionist painter. Among Sisley's best-known works are ''Street in Moret'' and ''Sand Heaps'', both owned by the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], and ''The Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing'', shown at [[Musée d'Orsay]], Paris. ''Allée des peupliers de Moret'' (''The Lane of Poplars at Moret'') has been stolen three times from the [[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice|Musée des Beaux-Arts]] in Nice – once in 1978 when on loan in Marseilles (recovered a few days later in the city's sewers), again in 1998 (when the museum's curator was convicted of the theft and jailed for five years with two accomplices), and finally in August 2007 (on 4 June 2008 French police recovered it and three other stolen paintings from a van in Marseilles).<ref name="earthtimes">{{cite web|title=French National Pleads Guilty to International Stolen Art Conspiracy |publisher=Earth Times |date=10 July 2008 |url=http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/french-national-pleads-guilty-to,463736.shtml |access-date=8 August 2007}}</ref> A large number of fake Sisleys have been discovered. Sisley produced some 900 oil paintings, some 100 pastels and many other drawings.<ref>''Alfred Sisley'', page 82, François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Cassell, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-304-32222-0}}</ref> During the Nazi period (1933–1945) a number of Sisley works were taken from Jewish art collectors by Nazis or their agents as part of the massive looting of Jews that preceded the Holocaust. On 18 June 2004 Sisley's ''Soleil de printemps, le Loing'' (1892) was restored to the family of Louis Hirsch, in a ceremony in Paris.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2004-06-19|title=Restitution d'un tableau d'Alfred Sisley|language=fr|work=Le Monde|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2004/06/19/restitution-d-un-tableau-d-alfred-sisley_369698_1819218.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-12|archive-url=https://archive.today/brCsi|archive-date=12 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Un Sisley volé par les Nazis refait surface|last=Darmon |first=Adrian |url=https://lootedart.com/news.php?r=OXSFSA793011|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-12|via=lootedart.com |work=artcult.fr|language=fr |trans-title=A Sisley stolen by the Nazis resurfaces|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817143017/http://lootedart.com/news.php?r=OXSFSA793011 |archive-date=17 August 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Meaux|first=Lorraine de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5lODwAAQBAJ&q=Louis+Hirsch+sisley&pg=PT414|title=Une grande famille russe. Les Gunzburg|date=2018-03-22|publisher=Place des éditeurs|isbn=978-2-262-07616-0|language=fr}}</ref> In 2008 a dispute erupted between Alain Dreyfus, an art dealer in Switzerland, and the auction house Christie's over a Sisley painting ''First Day of Spring in Moret'', that was claimed by the Lindon family in court in Paris. Dreyfus said that Christie's had not sufficiently examined the work’s history, or provenance, before putting it up for sale.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Moynihan |first=Colin |date=3 June 2018 |title=Did Christie's Do Its Homework? Buyer of Nazi-Tainted Work Says No |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/arts/design/christies-nazi-art-alfred-lindon.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 May 2021 |work=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604081358/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/arts/design/christies-nazi-art-alfred-lindon.html |archive-date=4 June 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Herzberg|first=Nathaniel|date=28 May 2018|title=Un Sisley vole par les nazis embarrasse Christie's|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T34PU0910601 |url-status=live|access-date=8 May 2021|work=Le Monde|via=lootedart.com |language=fr |trans-title=A Sisley stolen by the Nazis embarrasses Christie's|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501204333/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T34PU0910601 |archive-date=1 May 2019 }}</ref> Also in 2008, the Sisley ''Bateux en Réparation à Saint Mammès'' (1885) was recognised as having been looted by the Nazis and the subject of a settlement with the heirs of Benno and Frances Bernstein who had owned it before Nazi occupation. Numerous Sisleys such as ''Winter Landscape'' were known to have been seized by the Nazi looting organisation known as the E.R.R. and still have not been found.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alfred Sisley – Results|url=https://www.lootedart.com/search/artwork.php?artworkID=7577|url-status=live|access-date=12 February 2021|publisher=lootedart.com|quote=Alfred Sisley (1839–1899)<br>Winter Landscape<br>Painting<br>Oil<br>39 × 56 cm<br>Sign.: Sisley<br>Status: The object is looted. Its current location is unknown.<br>Provenance: Confiscated by the ERR from unknown collection, Paris. Arthur Pfannstiel, Paris painter and art dealer, received from an exchange with the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), 17 March 1941, Paris.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627113214/https://www.lootedart.com/search/artwork.php?artworkID=7577 |archive-date=27 June 2020 }}</ref> The German Lost Art Foundation has 24 listings for Sisley.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lost Art Internet Database – Einfache Suche – Sisley|url=http://www.lostart.de/Webs/DE/Datenbank/Suche/SucheSimpelErgebnis.html?cms_param=SUCHE_ID=29171091|url-status=live|access-date=2021-02-12|publisher=lostart.de}}</ref> ==Selected works== {{main|List of paintings by Alfred Sisley}} * ''[[Avenue of Chestnut Trees at La Celle-Saint-Cloud|Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud]]'' (1865) * ''[[View of Montmartre from Cité des Fleurs to Les Batignolles]]'' (1869) * ''[[The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne]]'' (1872) * ''[[Ferry to the Ile-de-la-Loge – Flood]]'' (1872) * ''[[The Grand-Rue in Argenteuil|La Grande-Rue, Argenteuil]]'' (c. 1872) * ''[[Rue de la Chaussée in Argenteuil|Square in Argenteuil (Rue de la Chaussee)]]'' (1872) * ''{{ill|Footbridge at Argenteuil|fr|Passerelle d'Argenteuil}}'' (1872) * ''[[Chemin de la Machine, Louveciennes]]'' (1873) * ''{{ill|Louveciennes. Sentier de la Mi-côte|fr}}'' (1873) * ''[[Hampton Court Bridge (painting)]]'' (1874) * ''[[Molesey Lock|Molesey Weir]] – Morning'' (1874) * ''[[Regatta at Molesey near Hampton Court|Regatta at Molesey]]'' (1874) * ''[[Under Hampton Court Bridge]]'' (1874) * ''[[The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring (painting)|The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring]]'' (1875) * ''[[The Small Meadows in Spring, By]]'' (c. 1881) ==Gallery== <gallery widths="140" heights="140" perrow="6"> File:Sisley, St Martin Canal 1870.jpg|''[[View of the Canal Saint-Martin|St. Martin Canal]]'' (1870) File:Sisley-Early Snow at Louveciennes.jpg|''Early Snow at Louveciennes'' (c. 1871–72) File:Sisley-Among the Vines Louveciennes.jpg|''Among the Vines Louveciennes'' (1874) File:Alfred Sisley - Fog, Voisins - Google Art Project.jpg|''Fog, Voisins'' (1874) File:Alfred Sisley 009.jpg|''Bridge at Hampton Court'' (1874) File:Alfred Sisley 050.jpg|''[[Regatta at Molesey near Hampton Court|Regatta at Molesey]]'' (1874) File:Sisley-Under the Bridge at Hampton Court.jpg|''[[Under Hampton Court Bridge|Under the Bridge at Hampton Court]]'' (1874) File:Meadow, Alfred Sisley, 1875.jpg|''[[The Meadow (painting)|The Meadow]]'' (1875) File:Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) - The Flood at Port-Marly - PD.69-1958 - Fitzwilliam Museum.jpg|''The Flood at Port Marly'' (1876), [[Fitzwilliam Museum]] File:La havre muma sisley pont moret.JPG|''Le Pont de Moret, effet d'orage'', 1887, [[Musée Malraux]], [[Le Havre]] File:Alfred Sisley - View of Saint-Mammès - Walters 37355.jpg|''View of Saint-Mammès'', (circa 1880), [[The Walters Art Museum]] File:Alfred Sisley - Un sentier aux Sablons (A path at Les Sablons) - Google Art Project.jpg|''A path at Les Sablons'' (1883) File:Alfred Sisley, The Port of Moret-sur-Loing - At night, 1884.jpg|''The Port of Moret-sur-Loing'' (1884) File:Alfred Sisley - Women Going to the Woods - Google Art Project.jpg|''Women Going to the Woods'' (1886) File:Alfred Sisley 013.jpg|''Seaside, Langland '' (1887) File:Alfred Sisley 038.jpg|''Church in Moret'' (1889) File:Alfred Sisley 051.jpg|''Saint-Mammès in the Morning'' (1890) File:Alfred Sisley - Le Givre à Veneux - UMMA.jpg|''Le Givre à Veneux'', 1880, [[University of Michigan Museum of Art]] </gallery> ==Notes== {{Reflist|2}} ==References== *Bomford, David, Jo Kirby, John Leighton, Ashok Roy, and Raymond White (1990). ''Impressionism''. London: National Gallery. {{ISBN|0-300-05035-6}} *Daulte, F. (1959). ''Alfred Sisley Catalogue raisonnee de l'oeuvre peint'' *Denvir, B. (2000). ''The Chronicle of Impressionism: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and World of the Great Artists''. London: Thames & Hudson. {{OCLC|43339405}} *Poulet, A. L., & Murphy, A. R. (1979). ''Corot to Braque: French Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston''. Boston: The Museum. {{ISBN|0-87846-134-5}} *Reed, Nicholas, (2008). ''Sisley on the Thames and the Welsh Coast''. Lilburne Press. {{ISBN|978-1-901167-20-7}} *Rosenblum, Robert (1989). ''Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay''. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang. {{ISBN|1-55670-099-7}} *Turner, J. (2000). ''From Monet to Cézanne: late 19th-century French artists''. Grove Art. New York: St Martin's Press. {{ISBN|0-312-22971-2}} ==External links== *{{Commonscatinline}} *{{Wikiquote-inline}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120327170936/http://www.alfredsisley.org/ Alfred Sisley.org] * [http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=147 Paintings by Sisley] * * {{Cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/impressionists/artists_sisley.html |title=''The Impressionists'' at Biography |access-date=1 May 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050306060503/http://www.biography.com/impressionists/artists_sisley.html |archive-date=6 March 2005 |url-status=bot: unknown |df=dmy-all }} * [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/78705 ''Impressionism : a centenary exhibition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 12, 1974 – February 10, 1975''], fully digitised text from The Metropolitan Museum of Art libraries {{Alfred Sisley|state=expanded}} {{Impressionists}} {{ACArt}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Sisley, Alfred}} [[Category:Alfred Sisley| ]] [[Category:1839 births]] [[Category:1899 deaths]] [[Category:Artists from Paris]] [[Category:19th-century English painters]] [[Category:English male painters]] [[Category:19th-century French painters]] [[Category:French male painters]] [[Category:British Impressionist painters]] [[Category:French Impressionist painters]] [[Category:British alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts]] [[Category:French people of English descent]] [[Category:Deaths in France]] [[Category:Deaths from throat cancer]]'