Art & Artist

Alfred Sisley

Sisley, "L'automne: Bords de la Seine près Bougival (Autumn: Banks of the Seine near Bougival)"

1873, Oil on canvas, 46 x 62 cm
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts/Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal

"We confess that in general we only moderately admire Sisley's paintings. Finishing is difficult. Many people make sketches with finesse, but one must blame those among them who limit themselves to beginnings. But this time Sisley exhibits a charming work along with other mediocre canvases. We do not know its title, for the catalogue is not yet published. On the bank of water vaguely tinted by the reflection from a pale sky, some yellow and red autumn trees lean, sad yet golden. And on the opposite bank, in a sort of half-circle, small houses, some with red roofs, stretch toward a distant, deeper blue."
Jean Prouvaire [PierreToloza], Le Rappel, 20 April 1874

"Landscape paintings are prominent in the Exhibition. Their defects also pierce the armor. Sisley is one of those making progress, but perhaps he sees too thin a section of nature."
Marc de Montifaud [Marie-Amelie Chartroule de Montifaud], L'Artiste, 1 May 1874

Sisley and his Wife, Renoir