Alfred Sisley

born Paris 1839, died Moret-sur-Loing 1899

The son of British parents living in Paris, he retained his British citizenship his whole life. Sisley went to London in the late 1850s to prepare himself for a career in business. He used part of this time to visit museums, where he studied the work of British painters, particularly John Constable (1776–1837).

On his return to Paris his father was amenable to his studying art and he entered Charles Gleyre's (1808–1874) studio in 1860, through an introduction from Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870). There he met Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and with them painted in the countryside around Paris, especially the forest of Fontainebleau. He had limited success at the Salon in the late 1860s and participated in four of the seven Impressionist shows.

He moved often in the 1870s, but remained close to Paris. In 1880 he moved to the area where the Loing river empties into the Seine, beyond Barbizon and Fontainebleau, where he stayed until his death.

The Franco-Prussian War ruined his father financially, and from 1871 on Sisley had to support himself, his mistress, and their two sons solely on the sales of his paintings. Despite a coterie of collectors, the good services of Durand-Ruel and Georges Petit, and participation in major exhibitions, Sisley did not enjoy financial success. He concentrated on landscapes of the region in which he lived, and his canvases are marked by a calmness of mood and a brightness of palette.

Source: Monet and the Impressionists exhibition catalogue:
Shackelford, George T M. Monet and the Impressionists.
Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2008

Learn more in the exhibition:
> Monet's early career
> Early Impressionism
> The triumph of Impressionism: the 1880s
> Impressionism after 1900

Works by Alfred Sisley in the exhibition

Waterworks at Marly  c1876, Alfred Sisley.
Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: gift of Miss Olive Simes

La Croix-Blanche at Saint-Mammès  1884, Alfred Sisley.
Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection