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Lot Essay
La Seine Saint Cloud was painted by Sisley in 1877, when he was living in Marly-le-Roi and exploring the area for new Impressionist motifs.
Three years after the first exhibition, held in Nadar's studio, the third exhibition of the 'Socit Anonyme des Artistes' in April 1877 brought no improvements in the Impressionists' financial position, although it was in this show that some of the greatest Impressionist masterpieces, such as Renoir's Moulin de la Galette (Paris, Muse d'Orsay, D.209) and Caillebotte's Rue de Paris, Temps de Pluie (Chicago, Art Institute, B.57), were presented to an as yet unprepared public. Sisley had seventeen paintings in the exhibition, which met the favourable approval of the critic Georges Rivire, who wrote in the Impressionniste of 14 April: 'Cette anne Monsieur Sisley a prsent plus de toiles qu'auparavant. Chaque peinture montre le mme style, la mme finesse et tranquillit...'.
It is in search of this 'tranquillit' that, in the summer months following the Parisian exhibition, Sisley set up his easel on the outskirts of one of the most picturesque corners of the Seine, between Pont-du-Jour, Saint-Germain and Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud was a jewel of 18th Century France, owing its name to a monastery founded by St Clodoald in the 6th century, and much of its grandeur to the chteau rebuilt by Louis XIV to designs by Mansart and Lepautre which regularly features as the centrepiece for Sisley's views of the town.
Three years after the first exhibition, held in Nadar's studio, the third exhibition of the 'Socit Anonyme des Artistes' in April 1877 brought no improvements in the Impressionists' financial position, although it was in this show that some of the greatest Impressionist masterpieces, such as Renoir's Moulin de la Galette (Paris, Muse d'Orsay, D.209) and Caillebotte's Rue de Paris, Temps de Pluie (Chicago, Art Institute, B.57), were presented to an as yet unprepared public. Sisley had seventeen paintings in the exhibition, which met the favourable approval of the critic Georges Rivire, who wrote in the Impressionniste of 14 April: 'Cette anne Monsieur Sisley a prsent plus de toiles qu'auparavant. Chaque peinture montre le mme style, la mme finesse et tranquillit...'.
It is in search of this 'tranquillit' that, in the summer months following the Parisian exhibition, Sisley set up his easel on the outskirts of one of the most picturesque corners of the Seine, between Pont-du-Jour, Saint-Germain and Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud was a jewel of 18th Century France, owing its name to a monastery founded by St Clodoald in the 6th century, and much of its grandeur to the chteau rebuilt by Louis XIV to designs by Mansart and Lepautre which regularly features as the centrepiece for Sisley's views of the town.