![]() ![]() This in turn creates a ripe environment for forgery and art fraud: “ Voila! Quelle suprise! An unknown Sisley in the attic!” It is possible that there are over 500 original Sisley paintings that have yet to be identified and authenticated. They’re hiding the pieces in attics or bank vaults because they’re afraid they will owe exorbitant inheritance taxes. According to this article from The Guardian, experts believe that locals in Moret are hoarding Sisley paintings that their ancestors may have purchased or bartered for many years ago. This has all led to very curious consequences. Now, of course, a Sisley would sell in the millions. We now know that Sisley sold many of his paintings to local Moret townspeople at bargain prices just to pay the rent. ![]() Sisley’s paintings did not sell well during his lifetime. Sisley died of throat cancer in 1899, but not before creating over 900 paintings, many of which depicted landscapes around the village of Moret. After that, Sisley became another starving artist just trying to get by.Īfter living in the Batignolles neighborhood of Paris through the 1860s and 70s, Sisley retreated to the village of Moret, where he lived a quiet painterly life with his common-law wife Eugénie (Marie) Lesouezec (they would not legally marry until 1897) and two children. Sisley was able to rely on his family’s wealth to subsidize his art career until his father lost his fortune in the Franco-Prussian War. They would become good friends and before long, they would develop their bold new Impressionist style. He took classes at the at the Académie Suisse, where he met Monet, Renoir and Bazille. He was from a wealthy British family and moved to Paris to study art in the 1860s. Here is a Google Map of the various Sisley sightseeing locations in and near Moret and les Sablons. Walking through these towns is like stepping into a Sisley painting. Sisley also lived in the nearby town of Veneux-les-Sablons from 1883 to 1889. Moret-sur-Loing was the home of the Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley the last ten years before his death in 1899. I’ve previously written about visiting the historic art colony of Grez-sur-Loing here, and my tour of Rosa Bonheur’s Studio in Thomery here. They’re all about an hour’s drive from Paris, and they make for a wonderful artsy day or weekend trip. Last year, I took two separate trip to the villages near the Fountainbleu Forest, including Barbizon, Grez, Moret-sur-Loing and Thomery. Moret-sur-Loing is one of the art villages and colonies I visited outside of Paris. ![]() “I’ve been there!” (I kind of shrieked – the dry cleaning lady smiled indulgently.) ![]() I snuck behind the desk to see it up close, and sure enough, it was a Sisley set in Moret. On a recent trip to my neighborhood dry cleaners, I spotted this picture on a calendar thumbtacked to the wall. The Bridge at Moret, Alfred Sisley (1893), Musée d’Orsay, Paris Today, the road is still called Rue de la Machine, easily found on Google Maps. It is part of a tourist initiative called the Pays des Impressionistes. You can find a sign commemorating the very spot where Sisley’s easel stood. The machine is no longer standing but the basins remain.Īlfred Sisley painted The Chemin de la Machine, Louveciennes (Musée D’Orsay) in 1873. Louis XIV built a huge aqueduct called the Machine de Marly, which brought water up from the Seine to the chateaux of Versailles and Marly. Marly-le-Roi was once the home of Louis XIV’s summer palace, but it was destroyed during the French Revolution. Click here for another post I wrote about a day trip to Chatou, the site where Renoir painted Luncheon of the Boating Party.Īlfred Sisley lived in Marly-le-Roi, a close-in suburb just west of Paris in the 1870s. You can easily drive from Chatou to Bougival, Marly-le-Roi, Rueil-Malmaison and Louveciennes in one day. I prefer renting a car (with GPS, bien sûr) so I can hit several different cities in the same day. It is easy to reach this area by train or rental car. Berthe Morrisot, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet lived or painted in the area. Many prominent Impressionist painters lived or kept summer homes in the western suburbs of Paris in the late 1800’s. ![]()
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