Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley is a key representative of French Impressionism, whose talent was primarily manifested in landscapes. Together with like-minded people, he organized the Impressionist community, participated in all the first exhibitions and “Plein airs”. He did not become as successful, famous and popular as Monet and Renoir. Many of his works were lost during the Franco-Prussian War when the artist was forced to flee Paris and leave all his belongings behind.

Key ideas:

– The works of the artist are distinguished by romanticism, calmness, and musicality. They are mostly are landscapes, which depict the quiet corners of France.
– The artist was interested in playing with light and shadow, and with the finest features of natural states. He tried to catch the slightest whiff of a breeze or the waving of a watery surface and conveyed them with the help of his signature artistic methods.
– Sisley often depicted the same landscapes under different weather conditions and at different times of the year, so as to reflect the naturalness of the surrounding world as accurately as possible.
He has dedicated to the ideas of Impressionism his whole life. Unlike his colleagues, he never changed his manner of painting, and never experimented with shapes or colours. The conciseness of his compositions and conservative use of the colour scale make his pictures rather simple and unusually holistic.