Alfred Sisley

Jules-Emile Boivin, Paris (acquired from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Alfred Sisley, 1971, no. 50, illustrated in the catalogue

Gotthard Jedlicka, Sisley, Bern, 1949, illustrated pl. 51
François Daulte, Alfred Sisley. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 859, illustrated

The canvas is unlined. There is a small area and a few small spots of retouching in the upper left corner, visible under ultra-violet light. Apart from a tiny spot of paint loss in the sky, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although stronger and fresher in the original.
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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 Moret-sur-Loing, Vivienne Couldrey noted: 'It is difficult to over-emphasise the importance of Moret, for Sisley painted most of his life's work in the area [...]. 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).

 

In the present work, Sisley focused his attention on the path by the river bank, lined with trees on both sides, with a narrow stretch of the river, and only a small glimpse of the houses in the background. He depicted this scene on an overcast day, and his palette is dominated by the deep green tones of the foliage and purple of the shadows. Fascinated by the peacefulness of the region, Sisley often painted from nature and tried to capture the changing effects of light on his surroundings. As the critic Gustave Geffroy wrote in 1923: 'He sought to express the harmonies that prevail, in all weathers and at every time of day, between foliage, water and sky, and he succeeded [...] He loved river banks; the fringes of woodland; towns and villages glimpsed through the old trees; old buildings swamped in greenery; winter morning sunlight; summer afternoons' (G. Geffroy, 'Sisley', in Les Cahiers d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1923).

 

Jules-Emile Boivin, who acquired this work directly from Sisley, and in whose family the work still remains, was a French industrialist and co-founder of the Sommier sugar company. He is also remembered as a collector with a discerning eye for works of art of the finest quality – his modern vision for the art of his contemporaries places him among the early French collectors of Impressionism. Through his friendship with Edgar Degas and Paul Durand-Ruel, Boivin acquired six exceptional works by Degas, two of which - Danseuse au repos and Femme assise devant un piano - were sold at Sotheby's London in June 1999.