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Lot Essay
'Impressionism gave to environment a new kind of unity in fusing the appearance of the natural and human sphere. A subtly rendered light and atmosphere permeated their images; there was in pictures of both worlds the same flicker of colour strokes, with a constant interchange of qualities. The theme was often a momentary state of the artificial environment, influenced by nature, or of nature modified by man: the unstable weather, with its favoured moments of bright sunshine; the landscape changing with the light and with the position of the moving spectator. Time in this art was marked by the rhythms of both heR man-made milieux and of nature' (M. Shapiro, Impressionism, Reflections and Perceptions, New York, 1997, p. 79-80).
In Sisley's Matin de fvrier, the bank of the Loing, bathed in the transparent winter light, becomes the symbol of this fusion of the 'natural' and 'human'. Sisley, inspired by Monet's powerful
Dbacles - his 1880 series depicting the dramatic thaw of the ice in the swollen Seine - focussed on the iridescent, silvery body of water, coloured by the precise shdows of the February sun. Here he chose to paint Moret from the North, most likely from the boatyard at Matrat.
In June 1880 Zola, the Rfuss' erstwhile loyal supporter, accused the Impressionists of failing in their artistic mission stating that they had not produced a single masterpiece which had survived the passage of time. Whilst Renoir and Pissarro responded to Zola's criticism by reconsidering the aesthetic roots of their art, Sisley stated his faith in the aims of Impressionism with an even stronger conviction. He settled at Veneux-Nadon and chose to paint the area around Veneux and Moret, uninterested in the picturesque corners of the little towns, but, on the contrary, attracted to the natural aspects of the region, embodying the very principles of Impressionism. 'Here were water, sky, reflections, a busy riverside... here was that conjuction of man-made and natural, the interleaving of foliage and house fronts between sky and water, that marked Sisley's first Impressionist canvases on the canal St. Martin' (R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 159).
In Sisley's Matin de fvrier, the bank of the Loing, bathed in the transparent winter light, becomes the symbol of this fusion of the 'natural' and 'human'. Sisley, inspired by Monet's powerful
Dbacles - his 1880 series depicting the dramatic thaw of the ice in the swollen Seine - focussed on the iridescent, silvery body of water, coloured by the precise shdows of the February sun. Here he chose to paint Moret from the North, most likely from the boatyard at Matrat.
In June 1880 Zola, the Rfuss' erstwhile loyal supporter, accused the Impressionists of failing in their artistic mission stating that they had not produced a single masterpiece which had survived the passage of time. Whilst Renoir and Pissarro responded to Zola's criticism by reconsidering the aesthetic roots of their art, Sisley stated his faith in the aims of Impressionism with an even stronger conviction. He settled at Veneux-Nadon and chose to paint the area around Veneux and Moret, uninterested in the picturesque corners of the little towns, but, on the contrary, attracted to the natural aspects of the region, embodying the very principles of Impressionism. 'Here were water, sky, reflections, a busy riverside... here was that conjuction of man-made and natural, the interleaving of foliage and house fronts between sky and water, that marked Sisley's first Impressionist canvases on the canal St. Martin' (R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 159).