ALFRED SISLEY | L'Orvanne et le canal du Loing en hiver

Jeanne Dietsh-Sisley, Paris (by descent from the artist and sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 18, 1909, lot 5)
Weinbach Collection, Paris (acquired at the above sale and sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 14, 1925, lot 268)
Galerie Danthon, Paris (acquired at the above sale)
Sale: Galerie Motte, Geneva, November 27, 1965, lot 62
Sale: Galerie Motte, Geneva, November 10, 1967, lot 49
Schoneman Galleries, Inc., New York (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 5, 2004, lot 136)
Acquired at the above sale

Paris, Champs de Mars, Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1892, no. 942
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, L'Atelier de Sisley, 1907, no. 7

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 786, illustrated n.p.

The work is in very good condition. The canvas has been strip-lined. There is scattered stable hariline craquelure throughout. The surface is clean and the impasto is well-preserved. Under UV light, there are minor strokes of inpainting along the upper left edge and top edge to address prior frame abrasion. There are a few scattered pindot strokes of inpainting in the upper right corner.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

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 before permanently settling in Moret-sur-Loing in 1889. 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 this region, Vivienne Couldrey notes, "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 Île-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" (Vivienne Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, Exeter, 1992, p. 68). Although Sisley is regarded as one of the best landscape painters among the Impressionists, the artist spoke often about his indebtedness to the Barbizon School of painters and their rejection of the academic tradition. Like the Impressionists, the Barbizon artists depicted the natural world with an approach that was more true to life, devoid of any historical narrative. When posed the question about his favorite artists in 1892, Sisley did not hesitate to name his Barbizon predecessors and their faithful approach to rendering the natural world: "What artists do I love? To take just the contemporaries: Delacroix, Corot, Millet, Tousseau, Corbet, our masters (see fig. 1). All who have loved Nature and felt strongly" (quoted in MaryAnne Stevens, Alfred Sisley (exhibition catalogue), The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992, p. 212).

Since the 1870s, Sisley had been fascinated by the beauty of France, and took delight in painting this new environment, trying to capture the effects of season, weather and time of day on the countryside, and experimenting with the effects of light and color. The unique properties of light on a clear winter day, whether reflected off the particles of encrusted snow or, in the present case, filtered through the crisp cool air, presented temporal and tonal challenges that appealed to Sisley’s most profound sensibilities as a landscape painter. While the vast majority of Sisley oils on the market represent spring and summer scenes, his winter landscapes are considered to be among the finest and most sensitively rendered of any Impressionist (see fig. 2).



This work will be included in the new edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of Alfred Sisley by François Daulte now being prepared by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau for the Comité Alfred Sisley.