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Lot Essay
The present landscape painting depicts the countryside at Bougival, a picturesque suburban enclave in the lush valley of the Seine, less than twenty kilometers west of Paris. The canvas was painted in 1876, when Sisley was living in nearby Marly-le-Roi. Both Sisley and Monet had settled in Bougival in the late 1860s; Renoir had visited the town frequently during the summer of 1869, painting alongside Monet at the popular bathing establishment, La Grenouillère. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in the autumn of 1870, Sisley took refuge in Paris, and Monet fled Bougival for England. Sisley's house at Bougival was pillaged by the Prussian army, and the contents of his studio were largely destroyed. When Sisley and his family returned to the Seine valley late in 1871, they joined Pissarro at Louveciennes rather than returning to Bougival; in the first weeks of 1875, they moved to Marly-le-Roi, where they remained for the next two and a half years. Richard Shone has praised Sisley's stay in Marly as "the period of some of his greatest landscapes" (Sisley, New York, 1992, p. 85), while Christopher Lloyd has written, "During the years when Sisley lived in Marly-le-Roi... he painted some of the finest pictures in his oeuvre" (Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992, p. 149).
The Seine between Bougival and Port-Marly was a favorite motif for Sisley throughout the 1870s. He was particularly interested in the economic life of this stretch of the river, which included a wash-house and a paper mill; in three canvases from 1875, he depicted men dredging sand from the bottom of the river to provide a clear channel for commercial barge traffic traveling between Le Havre and Paris (Daulte, nos. 176-178). The present landscape, in contrast, is an inland rural scene, representing the gently rolling fields on the outskirts of town. Sisley most likely painted the canvas in the very early spring. The trees are still completely bare, and the fields are muddy from the recent thaw, with just a few patches of green visible in the distance. The winter of 1875-1876 had been particularly long and cold in both Paris and the neighboring suburbs. Despite the inclement weather, Sisley managed to work extensively en plein air, painting more than a dozen snowscapes near his house at Marly. In March of 1876, around the same time that he painted the present canvas, he produced six views of the extensive springtime flooding at Port-Marly, a series which Christopher Lloyd has described as "one of the touchstones of Impressionism" (op. cit., p. 162).
The first owner of the present painting was Jules Feder, the head of the Union Générale bank in Paris and an important early collector of Impressionist art. In 1880, Feder advanced a great deal of money to Paul Durand-Ruel, enabling the dealer to resume purchasing work from the Impressionists after a hiatus of five years. Immediately upon receiving Feder's support Durand-Ruel acquired thirty-six paintings from Sisley, "the poorest and least successful of them all" (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1961, p. 453). The next year, he began once more to make regular purchases from Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro as well. In February 1882, however, Union Générale collapsed triggering a general recession, and Feder was ruined. Durand-Ruel had to pay the banker back all the money that he had advanced, and there followed an extremely precarious few years for the artists whom Durand-Ruel had supported, particularly Sisley and Pissarro. For the next several years Durand-Ruel was compelled to cut back on his advances to the Impressionist painters, and reduce the prices he paid for their paintings during this period; Sisley was especially hard-pressed to make ends meet.
The Seine between Bougival and Port-Marly was a favorite motif for Sisley throughout the 1870s. He was particularly interested in the economic life of this stretch of the river, which included a wash-house and a paper mill; in three canvases from 1875, he depicted men dredging sand from the bottom of the river to provide a clear channel for commercial barge traffic traveling between Le Havre and Paris (Daulte, nos. 176-178). The present landscape, in contrast, is an inland rural scene, representing the gently rolling fields on the outskirts of town. Sisley most likely painted the canvas in the very early spring. The trees are still completely bare, and the fields are muddy from the recent thaw, with just a few patches of green visible in the distance. The winter of 1875-1876 had been particularly long and cold in both Paris and the neighboring suburbs. Despite the inclement weather, Sisley managed to work extensively en plein air, painting more than a dozen snowscapes near his house at Marly. In March of 1876, around the same time that he painted the present canvas, he produced six views of the extensive springtime flooding at Port-Marly, a series which Christopher Lloyd has described as "one of the touchstones of Impressionism" (op. cit., p. 162).
The first owner of the present painting was Jules Feder, the head of the Union Générale bank in Paris and an important early collector of Impressionist art. In 1880, Feder advanced a great deal of money to Paul Durand-Ruel, enabling the dealer to resume purchasing work from the Impressionists after a hiatus of five years. Immediately upon receiving Feder's support Durand-Ruel acquired thirty-six paintings from Sisley, "the poorest and least successful of them all" (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1961, p. 453). The next year, he began once more to make regular purchases from Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro as well. In February 1882, however, Union Générale collapsed triggering a general recession, and Feder was ruined. Durand-Ruel had to pay the banker back all the money that he had advanced, and there followed an extremely precarious few years for the artists whom Durand-Ruel had supported, particularly Sisley and Pissarro. For the next several years Durand-Ruel was compelled to cut back on his advances to the Impressionist painters, and reduce the prices he paid for their paintings during this period; Sisley was especially hard-pressed to make ends meet.