Alfred Sisley French, 1839-1899

Impressionist landscape painter Alfred Sisley was born in Paris, 1839, into a wealthy English family. At the age of eighteen he was sent to London to study business, which he abandoned after encountering the work of Constable and Turner. Having returned to Paris, he became a student of the Swiss artist Charles Gleyre, and worked as a plein-air painter alongside Monet, Renoir and Bazille.

In 1886 Sisley began a relationship with Eugénie (Marie) Lesouezec against his parent’s wishes, and after the impact of the Franco-Prussian war on his father’s business, he was cut off financially. From 1880, Sisley and Eugenie lived in Moret-sur-Loing, where he was greatly influenced by Corot and the Barbizon painters. He participated in several of the impressionist exhibitions, and held solo shows in Paris (1883) and New York (1889). Entirely reliant on sales of his work, and with very little success, Sisley struggled with poverty until the end of his life.

He died in 1899, in France.