Alfred Sisley, La Barque pendant l'inondation, Port-Marly, 1876

Paris, Musée d'Orsay, RF 2021

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/la-barque-pendant-linondation-port-marly-1107

Sisley was perhaps the truest Impressionist. In terms of subject, method, and colour, his paintings are as beautiful as they come. Nobody captured La France profonde better.

And yet he was actually an Englishman. His father owned a successful silk business which just happened to give Alfred his start in France rather than England. He was wealthy enough to take his early artistic education rather easy, but the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) changed everything. The family business collapsed, and Sisley had to rely on the meagre income from the sales of his paintings thereafter.

He was present in almost all the major exhibitions, and the famous coterie (Monet, Renoir, et al.) loved him dearly. His eye was always true, and his commitment to the “new art” never wavered. The letters of his friends often alluded to the terrible poverty into which Sisley and his wife had fallen. Desperately-needed aid was often given, and yet the couple both died in heart-rending circumstances, just on the brink of commercial success.

He’s been called “the Forgotten Impressionist”, which is silly. His sales in recent auctions attest as much. We humbly submit that “the Quiet Impressionist” is better…

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