Alfred Sisley - United Kingdom Artist From Art History

Historical Artist - Alfred Sisley (1839 - 1899)

Alfred Sisley was an English Impressionist landscape painter who lived and worked in France. Alfred Sisley was born in Paris to affluent English parents, William Sisley and Felicia Sell. Alfred Sisley received his training in Paris, and was strongly influenced by Corot. In 1862, he studied under Charles Gleyre alongside fellow Impressionists Monet and Renoir. The three students traveled and exhibited together as strong leaders of the movement.

In 1866, Alfred Sisley married Eugénie Lesouezec, a Breton, with whom he had two children. His financial security vanished in 1870 when his father's business failed, and Alfred Sisley's sole means of support became the sale of his works. For the remainder of his life he would live in poverty; his paintings rose significantly in monetary value only after his death.

Among the Impressionists Alfred Sisley has been overshadowed by Monet, whose work his most resembles, although Alfred Sisley was less experimental, and tended to work on a smaller scale. Described by art historian Robert Rosenblum as having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting", Alfred Sisley's work strongly invokes atmosphere and his skies are always very impressive. His concentration on landscape subjects was the most consistent of any of the Impressionists.

Sisley died in Moret-sur-Loing at the age of 59, just a few months after the death of his wife.

Quotes on Art by Alfred Sisley

" As you know, the charm of a picture is many-sided. The subject, the motif, must always be set down in a simple way, easily understood and grasped by the beholder. By the elimination of superfluous detail the spectator should be led along the road that the painter indicates to him, and from the first be made to notice what the artist himself has felt."

" Every picture shows a spot with which the artist himself has fallen in love. It is in this - among other things - that the unsurpassed charm of Corot and Jongkind consists."

" The animation of the canvas is one of the hardest problems of painting. To give life to the work of art is certainly one of the most necessary tasks of the true artist. Everything must serve this end: form, colour, surface. The artist's impression is the life-giving factor, and only this impression can free that of the spectator."

" And though the artist must remain master of his craft, the surface, at times raised to the highest pitch of liveliness, should transmit to the beholder the sensation which possessed the artist."

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