Alfred Sisley: Seine et Marne

"Banks of the Seine at By" by Alfred Sisley

"Seine et Marne, on the eastern edge of the Ile de France, was to be Alfred Sisley's countryside for the last 20 years of his life. He moved to Veneux-Nadon in 1880, having been evicted from his house in Sèvres for not paying his rent. It is clear from the subjects of his paintings, however, that he had been coming to the area to work for some years before he moved his family there permanently. 

It was an agriculturally rich and peaceful countryside, well wooded, and with many historic towns and villages. It was, in fact, an ideal region for Sisley to work in, far enough away from the turmoil of the artistic world of Paris to enable him to turn his back on such disappointments as rejection by the Salon and concentrate on what mattered most: producing serene and lovely pictures such as this autumn scene.

At one point Sisley, desperate for money, wrote to Théodore Duret, one of the Impressionists greatest supporters, suggesting a deal. 'Might you be able to find some intelligent man. . .  who has enough fatih in your artistic knowledge to be persuaded to spend a bit of money on a painting by an artist who is on the very verge of recognition?' he wrote. Duret did not find such a man, but he was able to sell several of Sisley's paintings, thus relieving his financial distress for a time.

To be continued

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