Alfred Sisley
(1839-1899)
Alfred Sisley, an Impressionist landscape painter, was born on October 30, 1839 in Paris and spent most of his life in France. At the age of 18, he was sent to London to get commercial education, but after having studied business for four years he abandoned it and returned to Paris. In 1862 he began to study art in the studio of the Swiss artist Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre, where he became acquainted with Frйdйric Bazille, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Together they would paint landscapes in the open air. His earliest known work, “Lane near a Small Town”, is believed to have been painted around 1864. In 1866, he began a relationship with Eugenie Lesouezec (also known as Marie Lescouezec), a Breton living in Paris, with whom he had two children. For the rest of his life he would live in poverty; his paintings rose significantly in monetary value only after his death. In 1880 Sisley and his family moved to a small village near Moret-sur-Loing. In 1897 Sisley and his partner visited Wales and were finally married in Cardiff. The following year he applied for French citizenship but was refused. Sisley died on January 29, 1899 in Moret-sur-Loing at the age of 59, just a few months after the death of his wife.
