“It is at Moret - in this thickly wooded countryside with its tall poplars, the waters of the river Loing here, so beautiful, so translucent, so changeable; at Moret my art has undoubtedly developed most.”

In 1892, Alfred Sisley wrote a letter to the art critic Adolphe Tavernier explaining and summarising the importance of the small French town of Moret-sur-Loing for him and his artistic work: “It is at Moret - in this thickly wooded countryside with its tall poplars, the waters of the river Loing here, so beautiful, so translucent, so changeable; at Moret my art has undoubtedly developed most.”¹ At that time, Sisley, together with his partner Eugénie Lescouezec and their two children, had been living in Moret-sur- Loing, about seventy-five kilometres from Paris, for twelve years.² Over the years, Sisley had made numerous landscape paintings depicting the described river, the church and bridges of the town. The work Matinée de février à Moret-sur-Loing (February Morning at Moret-sur-Loing) was created in 1881 shortly after the family left Paris in 1880. The work demonstrates Sisley’s distinctive rapid and lively brushstroke in small lines and the lightflooded colour, which is characteristic of his oeuvre and which identifies him as a representative of the so-called “Impressionism”.³

At the time of the move to Moretsur- Loing, the artist had been going through difficult years. Sisley was born in Paris in 1839 as the son of successful and wealthy English merchants. As a young man, he resisted his parents’ wish to be trained in London in the family business of importing textiles and he returned to Paris to become an artist.⁴ Starting in 1861, Sisley joined the studio of the Swiss artist Charles Gleyre, where he met, among others, Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet, with whom he remained friends until his death in 1899. Together with Renoir and Monet, he painted in the forest of Fontainebleau and shared a studio. A mutual artistic inspiration is especially evident between Sisley and Monet. However, only a few works from this period of the 1860s are preserved, since Sisley’s entire fortune and his paintings were destroyed in his house on the Seine during the Franco- Prussian War of 1870-71. In addition, Sisley’s father cancelled his financial assistance, as he did not approve his son’s relationship with Eugénie Lescouezec. 

In 1874 and 1876, Sisley participated in the group exhibition of the “Impressionists”.⁵ As the general contemporary art critique rejected such a way of painting, his works mainly received negative reviews and the very few sales achieved only lowest prices. Until the end of his life, Sisley and his family lived in modest circumstances, as his works sold poorly. He repeatedly needed to rely on the support of patrons and friends, as well as on the help of the Parisian art dealer Paul Durand- Ruel, a central and important backer of various Impressionist artists. 

Only in later years of his life, Sisley received more positive reviews and his works were exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Paris, as well as in Brussels and New York. However, Sisley died too early to experience how much his work was valued later on, both in aesthetic and in financial terms. Shortly after his death and after a sale of his estate organised by Claude Monet, the artistic perception and prices of his work increased rapidly. 

The loose brushstroke and the manner with which Sisley brings his works to light through a finely tuned colour palette is seen in the Cerruti Collection’s Matinée de février à Moret-sur-Loing. The multifaceted tone of different blue nuances, combined with manifold shades of pink, illustrate the chilling cold of a sunny day in February. However, the sun already encourages people to stroll along the riverbank and to look for traces of the upcoming spring. The shimmering representation of the river with its reflections makes the viewer imaginarily wander through the painting and into the depths of the landscape. The fresh expression of Sisley’s painting impressed and amazed Sisley’s contemporary artist colleagues and forms the basis for today’s high appreciation of Sisley as an important representative of Impressionist painting. 

Veronica Peselmann

¹ Letter from Alfred Sisley to Adolphe Tavernier, Moret-sur-Loing, 19 January 1892, in Shone 1992, pp. 216-217.

² Ibid., p. 217.

³ Ferrara-Madrid-Lyon 2002-03.

⁴ Shone 1992, p. 224.

⁵ Berson 1986.