Sisley by Nathalia Brodskaya

Author:Nathalia Brodskaya [Brodskaya, Nathalia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781606353
Publisher: Parkstone International

33. The Rising Path, c.1878-79.

Oil on canvas, 38 x 55 cm,

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon.

34. The Railway Station at Sèvres, 1879.

Oil on canvas, 46.3 x 55.8 cm,

County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

35. Banks of the River Seine at By, 1880.

Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm,

Sterling and Francine Clark

Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

36. The Lane from By to the Bois des

Roches-Courtaut - Indian Summer, 1881.

Oil on canvas, 59.1 x 81 cm,

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montreal.

Instead of a gradual passage from the warm tones of the foreground towards the cool distance, he paints blindingly blue water in the middle ground with cottages in warm tones and golden light in the background. The sole red patch in the painting is on one of their roofs. Speaking of such works by Sisley, Renoir said that they kindle a desire to take a walk deep inside them.

Indeed, no matter what his motif was, Sisley always constructed his perspective so as to draw the gaze towards the background of the painting. A path going off in the distance became one of his favourite motifs. In Chemin montant ([The Rising Path], 1878-1879, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon), the viewer’s eye follows the small figures of passers-by right along to the end of the street. The Bords de la Seine à By, ([Banks of the River Seine at By], 1880, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts) are lined with trees. They invite the viewer on a melancholy stroll: one wants to slowly go farther and farther out, where the path descends. The river, in Sisley’s landscapes, is also a route that invites one to travel far away. He sees in the Seine not that joyous animation that Renoir sees, but a sublime calm. The trees are reflected motionlessly in the water, which is smooth as a mirror. The river and the sky are one and the same in this pale azure blue (Le Chemin de By au Bois des Roches-Courtaut - Été de la Saint-Martin, [The Lane from By to the Bois des Roches-Courtaut - Indian Summer], 1881, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montreal).

It was in By, Louveciennes and Bougival where Sisley discovered the effects that changes in colour had on the snow. He painted the snow-covered streets of Louveciennes, with light blue shadows, and the little bright patches of the clothes of passers-by. He never grew tired of painting these streets and snow was never without interest for him. It would not have been easy for him to capture that instant when the snow covers the road, the walls, and the trees with its thick, damp blanket (La Neige à Louveciennes [Snow at Louveciennes], 1878, Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Pink walls are subtly visible through the snowy layers, and the softness of the azure blue in the distance nearly merges with the paleness of the winter sky.

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