Alfred Sisley

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist on September 12, 1881)

Sale: Paris, April 5, 1884, lot 42

H. Vever, Paris (probably acquired from the above on January 17, 1893 and sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 1-2, 1897, lot 109)

M Behrend (acquired at the above sale)

Léon Orosdi (sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 25, 1923, lot 67)

Beaumont, Paris

Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York

Edmund Drummon Libbey

Acquired from the above in 1952

New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley, 1961

New York, Wildenstein Gallery, Alfred Sisley, 1839-1889, 1966, no. 46

Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Crisis of Impressionism, 1878-1882, 1979, no. 51

Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Degas and his friends, 1986, no. 40

B. Bibb, "The Work of Alfred Sisley," The Studio, London, December 1899, illustrated p. 154

Gustave Geffroy, Sisley, Paris, 1927, illustrated pl. 52

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, 1959, no. 397, illustrated (with the measurements 54 by 73 cm)

The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, illustrated pl. 252

Thomery is located just to the north of the confluence of the Seine and Loing rivers. This region, just bordering the forest of Fontainebleau, was fertile ground for Sisley’s art in the 1880’s. Thomery and the neighboring towns of Saint-Mammès, Moret, Veneux-Nadon and Les Sablons, were the primary sites for the artist at that time.

During this period, Sisley’s brushstroke continued to evolve, bringing a new complexity to his engagement with the landscape: "Sisley’s art did not stand still during his last two decades, and modifications to his technique, palette and approach to his subject matter were certainly introduced. For example, it was in the Saint-Mammès river scenes of 1881 that he began to analyze the various sections of a landscape through the application of different types of brushstroke. Or again, he realized the full potential of using a specific type of brushstroke and quality of paint to identify the mood of a landscape, be it thin, flat strokes of dry, almost chalky paint to convey a becalmed, crisp winter day, or bolder more fully laden strokes of pigment let down with more oil to capture the shimmering heat of a midsummer day" (Sylvie Patin ,” Veneux-Nadon and Moret-sur-Loing: 1880-1889”, in Alfred Sisley (exhibition catalogue), London, 1992, p. 183).