Lot Essay
The Comité Sisley confirms the authenticity of this work. This work will be included in the new edition of the Catalogue raisonné of Alfred Sisley by François Daulte, being prepared at the Galerie Brame & Lorenceau by the Comité Alfred Sisley.
In 1883, Alfred Sisley had moved from Morey-sur-Loing to the nearby village of Les Sablons, where he would live for several years and where, in 1885, he would create Gardeuse d'oies aux Sablons. Sisley had gradually been moving further and further from Paris, preferring life in the country both for the sake of his art and of his health. Having already lived nearby, he appears in part to have chosen Les Sablons on account of its climate, having explained in a letter to his dealer Durand-Ruel that the weather in Morey, which was in fact very close (Sisley moved several times from village to village near the confluence of the Seine and the Loing), was better suited to his health.
Les Sablons, which was located to the South-East of Paris on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, appears to have satisfied perfectly Sisley's love of the countryside, which is so evident in Gardeuse d'oies aux Sablons. At the same time, the vistas of the area allowed the artist to explore the fleeting effects of light on the water and in the sky which he so cherished and which prompted the admiration of so many collectors, critics and fellow artists. Even his comrade in Impressionism, Camille Pissarro, said of Sisley that he was 'a great and beautiful artist, in my opinion he is a master equal to the greatest' (Pissarro, quoted in C. Lloyd, 'Alfred Sisley and the Purity of Vision', pp. 5-33, M. Stevens (ed.), Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., New Haven and London, 1992, p. 8).
In 1883, Alfred Sisley had moved from Morey-sur-Loing to the nearby village of Les Sablons, where he would live for several years and where, in 1885, he would create Gardeuse d'oies aux Sablons. Sisley had gradually been moving further and further from Paris, preferring life in the country both for the sake of his art and of his health. Having already lived nearby, he appears in part to have chosen Les Sablons on account of its climate, having explained in a letter to his dealer Durand-Ruel that the weather in Morey, which was in fact very close (Sisley moved several times from village to village near the confluence of the Seine and the Loing), was better suited to his health.
Les Sablons, which was located to the South-East of Paris on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, appears to have satisfied perfectly Sisley's love of the countryside, which is so evident in Gardeuse d'oies aux Sablons. At the same time, the vistas of the area allowed the artist to explore the fleeting effects of light on the water and in the sky which he so cherished and which prompted the admiration of so many collectors, critics and fellow artists. Even his comrade in Impressionism, Camille Pissarro, said of Sisley that he was 'a great and beautiful artist, in my opinion he is a master equal to the greatest' (Pissarro, quoted in C. Lloyd, 'Alfred Sisley and the Purity of Vision', pp. 5-33, M. Stevens (ed.), Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., New Haven and London, 1992, p. 8).