Alfred Sisley: British Impressionist

"Effect of Snow in Louveciennes" by Alfred Sisley

"Although he was born in Paris and lived all his life in the Ile de France, Alfred Sisley's English parents and his quiet, unassuming style, ensured that he would always be thought of as the 'English Impressionist'. He was born in 1839, the same year as Cézanne, which made him a little older than Monet and Renoir, a little younger than Manet and Degas. Although his mother came from a cultured, middle-class London family, his father's business background ensured that art was never considered as a career for his son.

At 18, Alfred Sisley was sent to London to follow an apprenticeship in business. But the teenager quickly discovered the work of the great English landscape artists, including Constable, Turner and Bonington, in London's museums and art galleries, where he also came to admire many European painters, especially the Dutch landscape artists.

By the time he returned to Paris in 1861, Sisley had put all thought of a business career behind him. He persuaded his parents to allow him to enter the studio of the Swiss artist and teacher, Charles Gleyre, where he intended to devote himself full-time to the study of art. Gleyre's fame had attracted many young artists and Sisley soon found himself part of a group of highly talented young men with distinctly revolutionary ideas about the purpose and practice of art. Some became friends for life, including Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Fréderic Bazille."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Life and Works of Sisley" by Janice Anderson.)