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    Sale 1514

    Impressionist and Modern Art (Evening Sale)

    New York

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    4 May 2005

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    • Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
    Lot 23

    Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

    La manufacture de Sèvres

    Price realised

    USD 1,584,000

    Estimate

    USD 1,400,000 - USD 1,800,000

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    Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
    La manufacture de Sèvres
    signed 'Sisley' (lower right)
    oil on canvas
    23 5/8 x 28 7/8 in. (60 x 73.4 cm.)
    Painted in 1879

    Provenance

    Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris.
    Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York.
    C.P. de Alzaga, Argentina.
    Arthur Tooth & Sons, London.
    Cailleux, Paris.
    Private collection, Europe (acquired from the above, 7 March 1940); sale, Christie's, London, 29 November 1993, lot 7.
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owners.

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    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    E. Fougerat, "Sisley," Médecines et Peintures, Paris, p. 5 (illustrated).
    F. Daulte, "Découverte de Sisley," Connaissance des Arts, Paris, February 1957, p. 51 (illustrated, no. 60).
    F. Daulte, Alfred Sisley, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 307 (illustrated).
    L. Reidemeister, Auf den Spuren der Maler der Ile-de-France, Berlin, 1963, p. 103 (illustrated).
    F. Daulte, Sisley, Milan, 1972, p. 47 (illustrated).
    C. Lloyd, Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992, p. 150 (illustrated in color, fig. 90).


    Exhibited

    Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Tableaux de Sisley, February-March 1930, no. 29.
    London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, La Grande Epoque de Sisley, May-June 1937, no. 9.
    Toronto, Art Français, 1938.


    Lot Essay

    In 1878 Sisley moved to 7 avenue de Bellevue in Sèvres (fig. 1), a suburb of Paris famous for its porcelain factory, where he resided for the next two and a half years, painting many views of the town including the quays, bridge and square as well as the porcelain factory depicted in the present painting.

    The Sèvres factory was founded in 1738 in the Château de Viennes. In 1752 Louis XV became the principal shareholder under the influence of Madame de Pompadour. The factory was moved in 1756 to a new building at Sèvres and enjoyed its golden age. In 1793 the factory was declared as state property. By the time Sisley painted the present painting, the factory had been reorganized and was attempting to revive its former excellence and glory.

    As Christopher Lloyd commented on the artist's paintings from this period, "The group of paintings by Sisley dating from the 1870s are subject to the strictest pictorial organization. It is this compositional aspect, in addititon to their facture that makes these paintings, in comparison with landscapes by artists of the Barbizon school, specifically modern. Sisley incorporates an almost relentless array of horizontals, verticals and diagonals deployed as plunging perspectives and flat bands of planar divisions. Yet, Sisley, more so in many cases than even Pissarro and Monet, was more radical than any of his sources, since he seeks to bring order to a world in an ever increasing state of flux. The depiction of modernity was best served by a resolute style derived from astute visual analysis and confident technique" (C. Lloyd, "Alfred Sisley and the Purity of Vision", Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992).

    (fig. 1) Photograph of the avenue de Bellevue, Sèvres. Municipal Archives, Sèvres.Barcode23669437

    Other information

    Pre-Lot Text

    Property from the Maspro Art Museum, Japan

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