http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_254142/Pietro-Longhi/The-Perfume-Seller-2#Next_Paintingspicturile luiPietro LonghiPietro Longhi

Self-portrait of Longhi

Birth namePietro Longhi

BornNovember 5, 1701

DiedMay 8, 1785(aged83)

NationalityItalian

Clara the rhinocerosby Pietro Longhi,1751 (Ca' Rezzonico)

La lezione di danza(The Dancing Lesson), ca 1741, Venezia, Gallerie dell'Accademia

TheCharlatan, 1757

The Ridotto in Venice, ca. 1750sPietro Longhi(1702 or November 5, 1701[1] May 8, 1785) was aVenetianpainterof contemporary scenes of life.Biography[Pietro Longhi was born inVenicein the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint. He was initially taught by the Veronese painterAntonio Balestra, who then recommended the young painter to apprentice with theBologneseGiuseppe Maria Crespi,[2]who was highly regarded in his day for both religious andgenre paintingand was influenced by the work of Dutch painters. Longhi returned to Venice before 1732. He was married in 1732 to Caterina Maria Rizzi, by whom he had eleven children (only three of which reached the age of maturity).Among his early paintings are some altarpieces and religious themes. His first major documented work was an altarpiece for the church of San Pellegrino in 1732. In 1734, he completed frescoes in the walls and ceiling of the hall inCa' Sagredo, representing theDeath of the giants. In the late 1730s, he began to specialize in the small-scalegenre worksthat would lead him to be viewed in the future as the VenetianWilliam Hogarth, painting subjects and events of everyday life in Venice. Longhi's gallant interior scenes reflect the 18th century's turn towards the private and thebourgeois, and were extremely popular.Many of his paintings show Venetians at play, such as the depiction of the crowd of genteel citizens awkwardly gawking at a freakish Indianrhinoceros(see image). This painting, on display at theNational GalleryinLondon, chroniclesClara the rhinocerosbrought to Europe in 1741 by a Dutch sea captain and impresario fromLeyden, Douvemont van der Meer. This rhinoceros was exhibited in Venice in 1751.[3]There are two versions of this painting, nearly identical except for the unmasked portraits of two men inCa' Rezzonicoversion.[4]Ultimately, there may be a punning joke to the painting, since the young man on the left holds aloft the sawed offhorn(metaphor forcuckoldry) of the animal. Perhaps this explains the difference between the unchaperoned women.Other paintings chronicle the daily activities such as the gambling parlors (Ridotti) that proliferated in the 18th century.[5]Nearly half of the figures in his genre paintings are faceless, hidden behindVenetian Carnivalmasks.[6]In some, the insecure or naive posture and circumstance, the puppet-like delicacy of the persons, seem to suggest a satirical perspective of the artists toward his subjects. That this puppet-like quality was an intentional conceit on Longhi's part is attested by the skillful rendering of figures in his earlier history paintings and in his drawings.[7]Longhi's manydrawings, typically in black chalk or pencil heightened with white chalk on colored paper, were often done for their own sake, rather than as studies for paintings.In the 1750s, Longhilike Crespi before himwas commissioned to paint seven canvases documenting the seven Catholicsacraments. These are now inPinacoteca Querini Stampaliaalong with his scenes from the hunt (Caccia).From 1763 Longhi was Director of the Academy of Drawing and Carving. From this period, he began to work extensively withportraiture, and was actively assisted by his son,Alessandro. On 8 May 1785, following a short illness, he died, possibly due to aheart attack.A paraphrase ofBernard Berensonstates that "Longhi painted for the Venetians passionate about painting, their daily lives, in all dailiness, domesticity, and quotidian mundane-ness. In the scenes regarding the hairdo and the apparel of the lady, we find the subject of gossip of the inopportune barber, chattering of the maid; in the school of dance, the amiable sound of violins. It is not tragic ... but upholds a deep respect of customs, of great refinement, with an omnipresent good humor distinguishes the paintings of the Longhi from those of Hogarth, at times pitiless and loaded with omens of change".[citation needed]MasksIn numerous paintings of the 1750s and 1760s, Longhi depicts the upper class as masked figures engaging in various acts from gambling to flirting. For example, in the foreground of Longhis paintingThe Meeting of the Procuratore and His Wifeare a woman who is being greeted by a man that is presumed to be her husband. The setting is of a type of gathering place usually for masked people to engage in private matters such as romantic encounters.[8]The woman and her husband are not masked, but at the left a seated woman is unmasking herself to address a masked man leaning over her shoulder. This act may suggest that the womans Moretta mask, which lacks an opening for the mouth, requires her to unmask herself in order to speak; another interpretation is that the woman is interested enough in the masked man to remove her mask in order to reveal her true identity to him.[original research?]InThe Charlatan(1757;seen at right) the titular character is relegated to the background, where he stands on top of a table surrounded by admiring women and a young boy. In the foreground, a masked woman seems to fiddle with her fan and slyly look at a masked man who lifts part of her dress. There is a sense of duality as the ordinary event of the man on the top of the table is contrasted with the reality of Venetian life represented by the couple indulging themselves; this is similar to the duality of the mask used by his subjects to hide physically, but to expose their unconscious desires.Longhis portrayal of reality is also evident in his paintingThe Ridotto in Venice(ca. 1750s;seen at right) which depicts one of the many gambling halls in Venice. The scene is a crowd of figures, masked and unmasked. There is no one focal point in this work; many figures are playing cards and engaging in mysterious conversation. The center of the painting depicts a now familiar scene of a masked couple consisting of a shy woman and an aggressive man who lifts her dress. Repeating the figures of the flirtatious couple, Longhi displays the Ridotto as a place where the social elitewho would not exhibit such behavior in public nor unmaskedwould abandon all inhibitions and pursue their actual desires.Works San Pellegrino sentenced to execution, 17301732, oil on canvas, 400x340, parish church of San Pellegrino Adoration of the Magi, 17301732, oil on canvas, 190x150, Venice, Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista Fall of the giants, frescoes, Venice, Ca 'Sagredo, 1734, Shepherd sitting, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico Pastorello standing, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico Shepherdess with flower, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico Shepherdess with cock, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico Pastorello standing, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x45, Rovigo, Museo del Seminario The spinner, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The Washerwomen, 1740, oil on panel, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The happy couple, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The polenta, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico Drinkers, 17401745, oil on canvas, 61x48, Milan, Galleria d'Arte Moderna The concert, 1741, oil on canvas, 60x48, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The dance class, about 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The tailor, c. 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The toilet, ca 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The presentation, about 1741, oil on canvas, 64x53, Paris, Louvre The visit to the library, about 1741, oil on canvas, 59x44, Worcester Art Museum Frescoes, 1744, Venice, Church of San Pantalon The awakening of the knight, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x60, Windsor, royal collections The blindman's buff, 1744, oil on canvas, 48x58, Windsor, royal collections Fainting, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x61, Washington, National Gallery The game of the pan, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x61, Washington, National Gallery The visit to the lady, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum Meeting of the Prosecutor and his wife, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum The visit to the Lord, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, New York, Metropolitan Museum The milliner, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum Family group, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, London, National Gallery The visit of the Prosecutor, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x49, London, National Gallery The Dentist, c.1750, oil on canvas, 50x62, Milan, Brera The laundresses, c. 1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone The polenta, c.1750, oil on canvas, 60x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone The spinner, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone Drunks, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone The spinner, c.1750, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia The peasant woman asleep, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia The seller of fritole, c.1750, oil on canvas, 62x51, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The rhino, 1751, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The rhino, c. 1751, oil on canvas, 60x57, London, National Gallery The soothsayer, 1752, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The school work, 1752, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico Geography lesson, 1752, oil on canvas, 61x49, Venice, Fondazione Querini Stampalia. The pharmacist, 1752, oil on canvas, 60x48, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The tickle, 1755, oil on canvas, 61x48, Madrid, Thyssen Collection Baptism, 1755, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia The charlatan, 1757, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico Alchemists, 1757, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The Card Players, 1760, oil on canvas, 60x47, Milan, Galleria d'Arte Moderna The Music Lesson, 1760, oil on copper, 45x58, Baltimore, Walters Art Museum Philosopher Pythagoras, 1762, oil on canvas, 130x91, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia The cabin of the lion, 1762, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia Francesco Guardi, 1764, oil on canvas, 132x100, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico The arrival of the Lord, c.1770, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia The family Michiel, 1780, oil on canvas, 49x61, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Longhi

Pietro Longhi,original namePietro Falca (born1702,VenicediedMay 8, 1785,Venice),painter of the Rococo period known for his small scenes of Venetian social and domestic life.He was the son of a silversmith, Alessandro Falca, in whose workshop he received hisfirst training. Later he worked under the Veronese historical painter Antonio Balestra, but his one important work of this sort, the monumental ceiling of theFall of the Giants(completed 1734) for thePalazzo Sagredo, was an artistic and critical failure. It is likely that because of this he left Venice for a time and studied at Bologna under the genre painterGiuseppe Maria Crespi. After his return to Venice he devoted himself topaintingeveryday scenes from the life of the citysupper classandbourgeoisie, somewhat in the manner ofNicolas Lancretbut in a more ironic vein. He was also undoubtedly influenced by Dutchgenre painting, of which there was at least one important collection in Venice at that date. Longhis genre pictures provide a varied and detailed documentation of contemporary Venetian life and events (e.g.,The Dancing MasterandExhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice. Popular for their charm and seeming naivete, his paintings have a Rococo sense of the intimate and manifest the interest in social observation characteristic of the Enlightenment. His works, like those ofAntoine Watteau, were based on carefully observed figure drawings, a large number of which survive. He also painted landscapes and occasional portraits. Many of his paintings were engraved. He was elected to the Venetian Academy at its foundation in 1756.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/347502/Pietro-Longhi

ietroFalca, known as Pietro Longhi, was the main painter ofeveryday lifescenes in 18th-century Venice. His typicalsmall interiorscenes record life in Venice, without biting satire or pretentiousness though perhaps with a trace of gentle irony. Longhi had been born in Venice, the son of a goldsmith, and trained first by the history painter, Antonio Balestra (1666-1740).

He was subsequently inBologna, as a pupil ofGuiseppe Maria Crespi, who was well known for his studies of contemporary life, influenced by the work of Dutchpainters. Longhi returned to Venice before 1732, the year of his marriage, and was active for a period as ahistory painter. The first dated example of his typical small interior scenes is from 1741.Related paintings

A Fortune Teller at VenicePietro Longhiabout 1756

A Lady receiving a CavalierPietro Longhi1745-55

A Nobleman kissing a Lady's HandPietro Longhiabout 1746

An Interior with Three Women and a Seated ManPietro Longhiprobably 1750-5

Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at VenicePietro Longhiprobably 1751

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/pietro-longhi

Alfred Sisley

Alfred SisleyAlfred Sisley(n.30 octombrie1839 d.29 ianuarie1899) a fost un pictor impresionist englez care a trit i a pictat n Frana.Sisley s-a nscut nParis, prinii si fiind englezi William Sisley i Felicia Sell. La nceputul anilor 1860 a studiat n atelierul luiMarc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, unde i-a ntalnit peFrederic Bazille,Claude Moneti pePierre-Auguste Renoir.mpreuna au pictat n aer liber, pentru a captura ct mai real efectele pasagere ale razelor solare. Abordarea inovativ la acel moment a generat picturi mai colorate dect cele pe care erau oamenii obinuii s vad. Prefer s picteze suprafeele apei, vederea caleidoscopic a apei. Prin urmare Sisley i prietenii si au avut la nceput cteva oportuniti de a-i vinde tablourile sau de a le expune, dei spre deosebire de civa colegi de-ai si care aveau greuti financiare el primea o alocaie de la tatl su.Lucrrile lui Sisley din studenie s-au pierdut, cea mai timpurie lucrare a sa se crede, c a fost pictat n jurul anului 1864. La sfritul anilor 1860, el a nceput o relaie cu Eugenie Lescouezec, cu care a avut 2 copii. Relaia acestora a continuat timp de 30 ani, sfrindu-se cu moartea acesteia, cu cteva luni nainte de moartea lui n 1899.Sisley a murit nMoret-sur-Loingla vrsta de 59 de ani.Galerie Bulevard cu mesteceni lng La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 1865 Pod la Villeneuve-la-Garenne1872 Pod la Hampton Court, 1874 Molesey Weir - Diminea, 1874 Regatta la Hampton Court, 1874 Regatta la Molesey, 1874 Pajite, 1875 Inundaie la Port-Marly, 1876.Muse d'Orsay Langland.

http://www.alfredsisley.org/-toate picturile luihttp://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley Alfred SisleyAlfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley in 1882

Born30 October 1839Paris,France

Died29 January 1899(aged59)Moret-sur-Loing,France

NationalityBritish

FieldPainting

TrainingMarc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre

MovementImpressionism

Alfred Sisley(30 October 1839 29 January 1899) was anImpressionistlandscapepainterwho was born and spent most of his life inFrance, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscapeen plein air(i.e., outdoors). He never deviated intofigure paintingand, unlikeRenoirandPissarro, never found that Impressionism did not fulfill his artistic needs.Among his important works are a series of paintings of the RiverThames, mostly around Hampton, executed in 1874, and landscapes depicting places in or nearMoret-sur-Loing.

BiographySisley was born on 30 October 1839 inParisto affluent British parents. His father, William Sisley, was in thesilkbusiness, and his mother Felicia Sell was a cultivated music connoisseur.In 1857 at the age of 18, Sisley was sent toLondonto study for a career in business, but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris in 1861. From 1862, he studied at the Pariscole des Beaux-Artswithin theatelierof Swiss artistMarc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, where he became acquainted withFrdric Bazille,Claude Monet, andPierre-Auguste Renoir. Together they would paint landscapesen plein airrather than in the studio, in order to realistically capture the transient effects of sunlight. This approach, innovative at the time, resulted in paintings more colorful and more broadly painted than the public was accustomed to seeing. Consequently, Sisley and his friends initially had few opportunities to exhibit or sell their work. Their works were usually rejected by the jury of the most importantart exhibitionin France, the annualSalon. During the 1860s, though, Sisley was in a better financial position than some of his fellow artists, as he received an allowance from his father.In 1866, Sisley began a relationship with Eugnie Lesouezec (18341898; also known as Marie Lescouezec), a Breton living in Paris. The couple produced two children: son Pierre (born 1867) and daughter Jeanne (1869).[1]At the time, Sisley lived not far from Avenue de Clichy and theCaf Guerbois, the gathering-place of many Parisian painters.In 1868, his paintings were accepted at the Salon, but the exhibition did not bring him financial or critical success; nor did subsequent exhibitions.

Molesey Weir Morning, one of the paintings executed by Sisley on his visit to Britain in 1874In 1870 theFranco-Prussian Warbegan, and as a result Sisley's father's business failed and the painter's sole means of support became the sale of his works. For the remainder of his life he would live in poverty, as his paintings did not rise significantly in monetary value until after his death.[2]Occasionally, however, Sisley would be backed by patrons; and this allowed him, among other things, to make a few brief trips to Britain.The first of these occurred in 1874 after the first independent Impressionist exhibition. The result of a few months spent near London was a series of nearly twenty paintings of the UpperThamesnearMolesey, which was later described by art historianKenneth Clarkas "a perfect moment of Impressionism."Until 1880, Sisley lived and worked in the country west of Paris; then he and his family moved to a small village nearMoret-sur-Loing, close to theforest of Fontainebleau, where the painters of theBarbizon schoolhad worked earlier in the century. Here, as art historian Anne Poulet has said, "the gentle landscapes with their constantly changing atmosphere were perfectly attuned to his talents. Unlike Monet, he never sought the drama of the rampaging ocean or the brilliantly colored scenery of theCte d'Azur."[3]In 1881 Sisley made a second brief voyage to Britain.In 1897 Sisley and his partner visited Britain again, and were finally married inCardiffRegister Office on 5 August.[4]They stayed atPenarth, where Sisley painted at least six oils of the sea and the cliffs. In mid-August they moved to the Osborne Hotel atLangland Bayon theGower Peninsula, where he produced at least eleven oil paintings in and around Langland Bay andRotherslade Bay(then called Lady's Cove). They returned to France in October. This was Sisley's last voyage to his ancestral homeland. TheNational Museum Cardiffpossesses two of his oil paintings of Penarth and Langland.The following year Sisley applied for French citizenship, but was refused. A second application was made and supported by a police report, but illness intervened,[5]and Sisley remained British till his death.The painter died on 29 January 1899 ofthroat cancerinMoret-sur-Loingat the age of 59, a few months after the death of his wife.Work

Lane Near a Small Town(c. 1864), one of the earliest extant paintings by SisleySisley's student works are lost. His earliest known work,Lane near a Small Town, is believed to have been painted around 1864. His first landscape paintings are sombre, coloured with dark browns, greens, and pale blues. They were often executed atMarlyandSaint-Cloud. Little is known about Sisley's relationship with the paintings ofJ. M. W. TurnerandJohn Constable, which he may have seen in London, but some have suggested that these artists may have influenced his development as an Impressionist painter,[6]as may haveGustave CourbetandJean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.Among the Impressionists Sisley has been overshadowed by Monet, although his work most resembles that ofCamille Pissarro. Described by art historianRobert Rosenblumas having "almost a generic character, an impersonal textbook idea of a perfect Impressionist painting",[7]his work strongly invokes atmosphere, and his skies are always impressive. He concentrated on landscape more consistently than any other Impressionist painter.Among Sisley's best-known works areStreet in MoretandSand Heaps, both owned by theArt Institute of Chicago, andThe Bridge at Moret-sur-Loing, shown atMuse d'Orsay, Paris.Alle des peupliers de Moret(The Lane of Poplars at Moret) has been stolen three times from theMuse des Beaux-ArtsinNice- once in 1978 when on loan in Marseilles (recovered a few days later in the city's sewers), again in 1998 (when the museum's curator was convicted of the theft and jailed for five years with two accomplices) and finally in August 2007 (on 4 June 2008 French police recovered it and three other stolen paintings from a van in Marseilles).[8]In 1952Paul Georgessold a painting in New York Cityputativelyby Alfred Sisley (for $2000) to help neighbor Mme. Mac Guffie, a widow from France. Her husband was a dentist from Scotland who traded paintings from his customers who were Impressionist painters.An amazingly large number of fake Sisleys have been discovered. Sisley produced some 900 oil paintings, some 100 pastels and many other drawings, although he only lived to be 59 years old.[9]Selected works

The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring, 1875.The Walters Art Museum

Flood at Port-Marly, 1876.Muse d'Orsay Lane near a Small Town(c. 1864) Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud(c. 1865) Village Street in Marlotte(1866) Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud(1867) Still Life with Heron(1867) The Seine at St. Mammes(186769) View of Montmartre from the cite des Fleurs(1869) Early Snow at Louveciennes(c. 187172) Boulevard Heloise, Argenteuil(1872) Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne(1872) Ferry to the Ile-de-la-Loge - Flood(1872) Footbridge at Argenteuil(1872) La Grande-Rue, Argenteuil(c. 1872) Square in Argenteuil (Rue de la Chaussee)(1872) Chemin de la Machine Louveciennes(1873) Factory in the Flood, Bougival(1873) Rue de la Princesse, Louveciennes(1873) Sentier de la Mi-cote, Louveciennes(1873) Among the Vines Louveciennes(1874) Bridge at Hampton Court(1874) The Lesson(1874) Molesey Weir- Morning(1874) Regatta at Hampton Court(1874) Regatta at Molesey(1874) Snow on the Road Louveciennes(1874) Under the Bridge at Hampton Court(1874) Street in Louveciennes (Rue de la Princesse)(1875) The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring(1875) "The Terrace at Saint-Germain, Spring" (1875) Small Meadows in Spring(c. 1881) Storr Rock, Lady's Cove, le soir(1897) On the cliffs, Langland Bay(1897)Gallery Avenue of Chestnut Trees near La Celle-Saint-Cloud, 1865 Early Snow at Louveciennes, c. 1871-1872 Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne1872 Footbridge at Argenteuil, 1872 Chemin de la Machine Louveciennes, 1873 Sentier de la Mi-cote, Louveciennes, 1873 Among the Vines Louveciennes, 1874 Bridge at Hampton Court, 1874 Molesey Weir - Morning, 1874 Regatta at Hampton Court, 1874 Regatta at Molesey, 1874 Snow on the Road Louveciennes, 1874 Under the Bridge at Hampton Court, 1874 Meadow, 1875 Flood at Port-Marly, 1876.Muse d'Orsay Small Meadows in Spring, c. 1881 View of Saint-Mamms, (circa 1880).The Walters Art Museum.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley

Thelandscape paintingsof Alfred Sisley occupy an inviolable position in the history of early Impressionism. His depictions of the Thames atHampton Court, the Seine in flood, the snow bound suburbs of Paris are indispensable to an account of Impressionist landscape painting in the 1870s. Indeed, they are so fundamentally representative of our notion of what constitutes 'pure' Impressionism, that the re-evaluation of the movement in recent years has often left Sisley stranded outside it. This has greatly added to the comparative neglect of his work. He is famous but not known, admired but little studied. Many accounts of Impressionism treat him perfunctorily; assessments run on the comfortable premise that he was a marvellous painter for two or three years but became a victim of his style and collapsed into an irreversible decline. ... While there can be little doubt that thebest paintingswere made in the 1870s, there are vigorous and beautiful works from the years that followed.Other reasons exist for Sisley's shadowy reputation. Most obviously, his output appears less substantial and less clearly directed than that of his associates -Monet,RenoirandPissarro. Their later evolutions, especially those of Monet and Renoir, drew Impressionism into the earlytwentieth century. Sisley's death at the very end of the nineteenth assumes a symbolic resonance. It signals the dissolution of the kind of Impressionism to which he had devoted hisworking life. His relatively early death put an end to the unmistakable signs of renewal in his painting of the 1890s: a late flowering, withered almost before it had begun.Compared with that of his colleagues, Sisley's development was neither complex nor dramatic. The personality his work exudes is reticent and sober, marked, as the American painterMarsden Hartleywrote, by a 'solemn severity'. The influences digested in his early years, both English and French, served their purpose throughout his life. There are, of course, recognizable phases within his work, for Sisley was a highly conscious artist. Yet once the excitement of the Impressionist moment was over, his pace was leisurely and his evolution unforced. It is tempting to attribute this quiet self-effacement to his English origins, through which an innate insularity was transferred to the Ile de France. Several of his forebears, for example, were conspicuous for a plucky adventurousness followed by bourgeois consolidation. The pattern of Sisley's evolution is much the same.Recent Impressionist studies have been devoted, for the most part, to an investigation of subject matter and iconography - Sisley's work does not readily submit itself to such analysis. There is almost no overt social or political content in his painting, no informative celebration of contemporary people, no agrarian comment or escapist Mediterranean allure. It is true that he was not attracted to aspects of urban life, as found in Renoir, nor to the ideological impulses that inform, for example, much of Pissarro's work. For most of his life Sisley was content to depict the traditional activities of countryside and rural waterways as they impinged on the landscape. In the 1870s, working in all the places whose names recur in the early history of Impressionism - Bougival, Argenteuil, Marty, Louveciennes - Sisley resolutely turned his back on theirsocial life. He concentrated instead on undisturbed or only distantly animated aspects of his surroundings. This has led to an underestimation of those elements of the everyday scene which do, in fact, appear intermittently throughout his painting. There are many moments of private leisure - there are trains, factory chimneys, pleasure boats and barges, a forge, a flood rescue, quayside activities; there are the flags and crowds of regattas on the Thames and of Paris effete at the Point du Jour. None of these should be omitted from an account of Sisley's role within Impressionism viewed in its social context.No substantial biography of Sisley has yet been written. His life is not well documented and this has furthered his neglect. Although he wrote many letters, few are personally revealing or of exceptional interest. There are no journals or autobiographical writings and he died before celebrity might have sent interviewers and photographers to his door. At the same time, the change in his character from high spirits and sociability to a seemingly misanthropic and suspicious demeanour accounts for the virtual disappearance of his name from the memoirs and letters of several of his early friends. As a result of thisprofil perdu, the few facts about Sisley's life that have long been taken for granted have not been thoroughly examined. Since the publication in 1959 of Francois Daulte's catalogue raisonne, almost no research has investigated Sisley's life - misstatements and misconceptions abound. Several of these have been corrected...and use has been made of unpublished letters and archival documents. These modify or illuminate at many points the biographical outline of Sisley and set his work in a more palpable context. New material has shaped the narrative and deepened that sense of Sisley as resourceful, proud and solitary. In a passage on the landscapes ofRuisdael, written in 1875, Eugene Fromentin wrote of the Dutch painter asa dreamer, one of those men of whom many exist in our own day but who were rare in Ruisdael's time - one of those lonely wanderers who flee from the town, frequent the outskirts, who love the country without exaggeration and describe it without phrases, who are made uneasy by distant horizons but are charmed by open country, moved by a shadow and enchanted by a shaft of sunlight.He goes on to suggest the sombre reasonableness of Ruisdael's melancholy, the product neither of self-indulgent immaturity nor of the fretful self pity of old age. No one familiar with Sisley's painting or his character can fail to be reminded of them by Fromentin's words. They were written in the year when Sisley produced some of his finest paintings, and at the start of one of the most discouraging periods of his life. He was at the height of his powers, superbly endowed with gifts that place his achievements on a level with those of Renoir, Monet and Pissarro. In particular, he faultlessly conveys those startling moments of perception in which a scene is removed from its surroundings, however commonplace, and steeped in an undefinable emotion - the Marly aqueduct, the flooded inn by the Seine, a passer by in the snow, a girl swinging in an orchard, a wave breaking over a rock on the shore. He has the power of transcribing such scenes as though be had been searching for them all along, and yet he reveals them with an air of diffidence that disarms while it captivates. It is at such moments that Sisley enlarges our perception of Impressionist painting and joins the ranks of the great European landscapists.http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/sisley.html