Lot Essay
From 1871 to 1874 Sisley lived in Louveciennes and painted almost every aspect of his surroundings through each season of the year.
Timid and modest, burdened with financial preoccupations to which he was much less accustomed than his chronically poor friends, Sisley began to isolate himself after having found in the works of his comrades, and particularly Monet, directions for a new approach to nature.... As Monet had done and continued to do, Sisley began to study the changes of color and form which summer and winter bestow upon the same motif.... Some of his paintings are surprisingly high in key.... In others, notably several done at Argenteuil, he reverts to softer color schemes, rich in silvery greys, but these are handled with such subtleness that any danger of monotony is avoided; instead a gentle and new lyricism pervades his work. (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1973, pp. 289-290)
The harsh winter of 1869-70 had drawn Monet and Pissarro out into the snow-covered route of Versailles in Louveciennes. Two years later, Monet painted several views of Argenteuil under snow and Sisley began his own series of winter landscape scenes. Effet de neige à Argenteuil was painted in 1874, the same year that Sisley participated in the first Impressionist exhibition. It is a singularly accomplished example of his work from this period, demonstrating his ability to capture the still, crisp atmosphere of a frozen landscape. The luminosity of his palette, employing only a narrow range of cool blues and grays on white, conveys the sharp, clear winter atmosphere and light. "Something in Sisley responded to the melancholy of the bare trees, the frozen countryside, the special silence of the snow." (V. Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, London, 1992, p. 44)
Timid and modest, burdened with financial preoccupations to which he was much less accustomed than his chronically poor friends, Sisley began to isolate himself after having found in the works of his comrades, and particularly Monet, directions for a new approach to nature.... As Monet had done and continued to do, Sisley began to study the changes of color and form which summer and winter bestow upon the same motif.... Some of his paintings are surprisingly high in key.... In others, notably several done at Argenteuil, he reverts to softer color schemes, rich in silvery greys, but these are handled with such subtleness that any danger of monotony is avoided; instead a gentle and new lyricism pervades his work. (J. Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1973, pp. 289-290)
The harsh winter of 1869-70 had drawn Monet and Pissarro out into the snow-covered route of Versailles in Louveciennes. Two years later, Monet painted several views of Argenteuil under snow and Sisley began his own series of winter landscape scenes. Effet de neige à Argenteuil was painted in 1874, the same year that Sisley participated in the first Impressionist exhibition. It is a singularly accomplished example of his work from this period, demonstrating his ability to capture the still, crisp atmosphere of a frozen landscape. The luminosity of his palette, employing only a narrow range of cool blues and grays on white, conveys the sharp, clear winter atmosphere and light. "Something in Sisley responded to the melancholy of the bare trees, the frozen countryside, the special silence of the snow." (V. Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, London, 1992, p. 44)