Tuesday Art ATTACK- Alfred Sisley “The Loing Flowing Under the Moret Bridge”

Alfred Sisley was born October 30th in 1839 in Paris, France. Sisley left when he was 18 to study business in London. Four short years later Sisley abandoned business school. He returned to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts determined to become an artist. During his time in school he became close friends with several of his classmates. Among these friends were the likes of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Frédéric Bazille. The group of them enjoyed painting landscapes outside from direct observation (en plain air) as apposed to reconstructing them in the studio. As a result the paintings they were producing were a great deal more colorful than those of their contemporaries. It is for this reason that the curators and audiences of the salon didn't know how to react to these innovative paintings; making it difficult for Sisley and his fellow impressionists to book shows and exhibit their works. In 1868, Sisley's paintings were finally excepted into the Salon, however this did not bring him finical or artistic success. His following exhibitions would also bring him little recognition as well. After moving around France battling poverty Sisley decided to re-visit Britain in 1897. Here he married his long time partner Marie Lescouezec and hopped around Britain for a year, in which Sisley painted a large number of paintings, until they returned to France in October 1898. Shortly after his return home Sisley fell ill and died January 29, 1899 at the age of 59. Alfred Sisley in my opinion is highly underrated compared to his contemporaries such as Monet. He fiercely devoted himself to the study of light and its interaction with surrounding objects. Unlike Monet, Sisley did not become consumed with capturing light on water; but he focused more on how light interacts with foliage. In particular Sisley loved to experiment with trees. He is often overlooked, but Sisley pushed perspective, lightning, and life like color of the Impressionism movement as far as anyone.