Alfred Sisley was a British Impressionist landscape painter born in France and lived there for the majority of his life. In his passion for painting landscapes en Plein air, he was the most consistent of the Impressionists. He only sometimes dabbled in figure painting and found that Impressionism satisfied his artistic needs.

Molesey Weir – Morning, one of the paintings executed by Sisley on his visit to Britain in 1874

Alfred Sisley was one of Impressionism’s most underappreciated artists. This could be because Sisley was born in France to English parents and later divided his time between the two countries. As a result, despite being an important player in French Impressionism, he remained something of an outcast. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who focused on city life, industrialization, and individuals, Sisley was almost entirely a landscape painter, a theme from which he rarely deviated. Furthermore, his works have a moodiness and specific colorism that show an influence from older periods of English and French art, particularly the Barbizon school. As a result, Sisley developed his distinct style of Impressionism, foreshadowing many of the new painting forms that emerged in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century.

Canal St Martin (1870) by Alfred Sisley

Sisley’s landscapes are renowned for their amazing ability to capture a feeling of atmosphere and light. This effect is emphasized by his large, emotive skies, which are often a key feature of his works. His attention to the intricacies of natural settings was astonishing, allowing him to create landscapes that pulse with the seemingly contradictory ideas of physical reality and dreamy emotionalism at the same time. Even though Sisley’s art is fairly attractive to the modern eye, it is crucial to remember that his work was quite revolutionary at the time. His emphasis on modern, urban life, his perception of nature as a valuable subject, and his sketchy, “impressionistic” manner were all trademarks of a new painting style for an industrialized society.

Alfred Sisley, Fog, Voisins, 1874

Sisley primarily created peaceful landscapes in the Impressionist style, with simple forms, fragmented colour, and a vibrant palette. His art is comparable to Monet’s, although he used colour in a much more limited manner. Sisley’s use of colour was sometimes too restricted. While the misty depiction on the left may be correct, it does not appeal to me. 

Alfred Sisley, Landscape on the Banks of the Seine, 1875

I prefer when Sisley pushed the colour a bit more, like in his Landscape On The Banks Of The Seine. As a result of the following factors, there is a strong sense of light in this painting: 

  • Clouds have near-white highlights
  • Lights and darks have a high-value contrast. The brighter the light source looks, the greater the contrast
  • The temperature difference between lights and darks.
Alfred Sisley, Footbridge at Argenteuil, 1872

In Footbridge at Argenteuil, Sisley uses simple colour shapes for the people. Even without any of the finer details, the correct colours and forms in the proper places may convey a large amount of information about the subject. This painting is also a fantastic example of linear perspective. It is quite clear to see how all of the lines utilized for the footbridge come together towards a vanishing point in the distance.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Sisley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley

Image Sources:

http://www.alfredsisley.net/fog-voisins/

https://arthive.com/alfredsisley/works/462024~Landscape_on_the_banks_of_the_Seine#show

https://www.wikiart.org/en/alfred-sisley/footbridge-at-argenteuil-1872

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21865888

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28105366