Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

La Lisière de la forêt au Printemps, le soir

Details
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
La Lisière de la forêt au Printemps, le soir
signed and dated lower right 'Sisley 86'
oil on canvas
21 5/8in. x 29in. (52.3 x 73.6cm.)
Painted in 1886
Provenance
Emile Boivin, Paris
Henry Soulange-Bodin, Paris
Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired by the present owner)
Literature
F. Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 631 (illustrated)
Sale room notice
The correct measurements are 21 5/8 x 29in. (52.3 x 73.6cm.)

Lot Essay

"Sisley was untiring in the study of changing seasons and of light, often coming back to the same place, never weary of looking at nature and without displaying any desire to cease this contemplation. Perhaps one reason for this repetition of experience, it might even be called his 'constancy', was the fact that, unlike his friends, he had not had the good fortune to make a reputation for himself." (R. Cogniat, Sisley, Naefels, 1978)

"He sought to express the harmonies that prevail, in all weather and at every time of day, between foliage, water and sky; and he succeeded...He loved river banks; the fringes of woodlands; towns and villages glimpsed through the trees; old buildings swamped in greenery; winter morning sunlight; summer afternoons. He had a delicate way of conveying the effects of foliage." (G. Geffroy, "Sisley" in Les Cahiers d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1923)