Alfred
Sisley
was born on October 30, 1839 in Paris of English parents. After his
schooldays, his father, a merchant trading with the southern states of
America, sent him to London for a business career, but finding this
unpalatable, Sisley returned to Paris in 1862 with the aim of becoming an
artist. His family gave him every support, sending him to Gleyre's studio,
where he met Renoir, Monet and Bazille. He spent
some time painting in Fontainebleau, at Chailly with Monet, Bazille and
Renoir, and later at Marlotte with Renoir. His style at this time was
deeply influenced by Courbet and
Daubigny, and when he first exhibited at the Salon in 1867 it was as the
pupuil of Corot.
By this time, however, he had started to frequent
the CafÊ Guerbois, and was becoming more deeply influenced by the notions
which were creating Impressionism. During the Franco-Prussian war and the
period of the Commune, he spent some time in London and was introduced to
Durand-Ruel by Pissarro, becoming
part of that dealer's stable. In the mean time, his father had lost all
his money as a result of the war, and Sisley, with a family to support,
was reduced to a state of penury, in which he was to stay until virtually
the end of his life.
He now saw himself as a full-time professional
painter and part of the Impressionist group, exhibiting with them in 1874,
1876, 1877 and 1882. His work had by this time achieved complete
independance from the early influences that had affected him. In the 1870s
he produced a remarkable series of landscapes of Argenteuil, where he was
living, one of which, The Bridge at
Argenteuil (1872; Brooks Memorial Gallery, Memphis, USA) was bought
by Manet. Towards the
end of the decade Monet was beginning to have a considerable influence on
him, and a series of landscape paintings of the area around Paris,
including Marly, Bougival and Louveciennes (1876;
Floods at Port-Marly, MusÊe
d'Orsay), shows the way in which his dominent and evident lyricism still
respects the demands of the subject-matter. From his early admiration for
Corot he retained a passionate interest in the sky, which nearly always
dominates his paintings, and also in the effects of snow, the two
interests often combining to create a strangely dramatic effect (1880;
Snow at VÊneux; MusÊe d'Orsay).
Naturally different, he did not promote himself in the way that some of
his fellow Impressionists did, and it was only towards the end of his life,
when he was dying of cancer of the throat, that he received something
approaching the recognition he deserved.
