ALFRED SISLEY 1839-1899

Alfred Sisley was a British painter, born in 1839 in Paris. Torn between London and France, the father of pointillism spent more time visiting museums then studying international trade. In England, he discovered Turner and Constable, and definitively dedicated himself to art in 1861. In October of the same year, he entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris and attended, in parallel, the studio of Charles Gleyre and Swiss Academy, where he met Renoir, Monet and Bazille. It is with these pioneers of Impressionism that he developed the open air painting. The four friends left the workshops and set up their outdoor easel, to capture the light of the present moment. In 1865, he initiated the Salon des Refusés to promote Impressionist painting. Then, meetings at the Café Guerbois, orchestrated by Edouard Manet, followed. Emile Zola participated in too.
What is bound to become an esthetic revolution was paused in 1870 while Monet, Pissarro and Sisley fled during the Prussian invasion to London and were in contact with the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Back in France a year later, he painted many snowy landscapes, with blue and pink reflections. From 1876, he discovered the beauties of the Seine and made regular stays in the Yvelines.
In 1883, many solo exhibitions were held, signing Sisley’s fame. He exhibited at Durand-Ruel’s, including in his new gallery in New York. In 1890 he was admitted to the National Society of Fine Arts.
Today unanimously considered as the purest representative of Impressionism, due to his delicate and luminous pictorial touch, and his thorough understanding of nature, Alfred Sisley is one of those cursed painters whose career took a world-wide scale after his death.
It was in 1899 that the painter’s rating soared and his painting became one of the most popular of the artistic community.