Alfred Sisley

1833 - 899
United Kingdom

Alfred Sisley, was an Englishman born in Paris, where his father ran an prosperous business. Sisley studied at the Académie Gleyre in 1862 with Monet and his friends. In the role of neutral English mediator, he shared in the evening discussions at the Cafe Guerbois. After the 1863 Salon des Refusés, Sisley left Paris with Monet and the two lived and painted together in the still rural suburbs.

Sisley's earliest works showed the influence of the Barbizon School and, particularly in color tonalities and technique, of Corot and Daubigny. By 1870, he had adopted the short rapid Impressionist brushstroke and like Monet remained faithful to the technique throughout his career. Unlike Monet, however, he preserved distinctive forms that do not dissolve into the atmosphere, and he was more interested in capturing the movement of foliage, the shimmer of water, and the texture of cloud-filled skies than in recording atmospheric changes in light and the subsequent results.

Primarily a landscapist, Sisley preferred the countryside around the Ile-de-France with its unique and subtle beauty in all seasons. To this he brought a soft, muted palette with warm greens, blue-greens, pale yellows, and clear blues predominating. His canvases have a unity of vision in composition that is heightened by a lyrical sensitivity.

That he could paint constantly in this manner is proof enough of his love of nature and of painting, for Sisley suffered severe poverty after 1872 when his father's business failed. He began to sell his works very late, and throughout his life he commanded lower prices than his friends. In 1876 Sisley moved to Moret-sur-Loing, a beautiful little town that has changed little in nearly a century and that points with pride to the sites he immortalized in paint and to the house in which he died.