From Publishers Weekly
This concise biographical study of impressionist painter Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) is sparklingly illustrated with 74 superb color plates that capture his works' many moods. British journalist Couldrey is nicely attuned to the paintings' calmly mysterious radiance, their understatement, liberating sense of space and sheer enjoyment of nature. Sisley, born in Paris of English parents and with a French grandmother, "was neither English nor French--he was both," asserts the author, who applies this formula to his art and personality. Without adding significant new details to the life, her sensitive portrayal reveals a dignified artist, convinced of his true worth, stoically enduring disappointments and poverty. In her own understated way, Couldrey makes a strong case that Sisley, one of the least successful and lesser-known of the impressionists, was at the very heart of French impressionism as a prime force in the circle of Renoir, Monet and Pissarro.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Born in France of English parents, Alfred Sisley is the least-known of the original group of painters who came be known as the Impressionists. Overshadowed for more than a century by his friends Monet, Renoir and Pissaro, he is at last receiving his deserved recognition. This biography of Sisley charts the development of his career from comfortable middle-class beginnings through the flowering of his artistic genius. Despite later poverty and continual critical neglect, the artist never wavered in his commitment to his paintings and his vision. He painted the world about him - churches, bridges, rivers, fields and trees in various moods and lights, and the changing sky which was his inspiration. His paintings, 60 of which are reproduced in this book, reflect the obsession with nature which was fundamental to the Impressionist movement. Vivienne Couldrey is a novelist and short-story writer, and the author of "The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany".
