Alfred Sisley

Many of Alfred Sisley's wistful, lyrical landscapes radiate with beauty, originality, and technical brilliance, but his reclusive nature and the uneven quality of his output have made him the least known of the major Impressionists. In this handsome book, an international team of scholars presents a broad-ranging analysis of Sisley and his work. By focusing on sixty-five of his best paintings, the book allows us to appreciate Sisley's contribution to the forging of Impressionism in the 1860s, his mastery of style in the 1870s, his resolution of the problems of technique in the 1880s, and his exploration of the idea of serial painting in the 1890s.

The book begins with a biography of Sisley written by Christopher Lloyd. Next Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy's discussion of Sisley's relationship with his European dealers and William Johnston's commentary on early American collections of works by Sisley shed light on contemporary attitudes toward his art. Isabelle Cahn then provides a detailed documentary chronology of Sisley's works. The catalogue that follows includes full data on sixty-five of Sisley's paintings. The works are arranged chronologically and are accompanied by introductions by Mary Anne Stevens, Christopher Lloyd, William Johnston, and Sylvie Gache-Patin that review relevant locations, stylistic developments, and critical response to Sisley's art.