Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley (one of my favorites and in my opinion underrated) was more than any of the other French Impressionists devoted to the depiction of water, streams and in particular, the Seine River.
Sisley painted several canvasses of the flooding of the Seine at Port Marly in 1872 and 1876. The three paintings here, showing the water covering the streets, were painted in 1876 in the same location. You can see a current photograph and map of the location here.
Sisley has painted the flood almost as if it were the natural state of the town or the river, without drama, just his even straightforward take on the scene as a landscape painter.
The first two paintings are in the Musée d’Orsay here and here. The bottom painting is in the Musées de Rouen.
A Google image search will turn up a number of larger versions of the images, in an astonishing range of colors, as will a search on Flickr.
I’ve tried to correct these a bit, based not on recently having viewed the originals (unfortunately) but on my exposure to other paintings by Sisley, and my experience with incorrect color shifting of images posted on the web, even by the museums that house the originals in many cases.
My notion for this post came from Katherine Tyrrell’s post about Sisley’s other paintings of the flooded Seine.
Magnificent paintings. Thanks, as always, for highlighting this fine work.
The cafe on the corner is still there. A couple of years ago we went on a tour visiting sites from which many impressionist painters painted, and actually stopped and had refreshments at the cafe.
Wonderful to know, thanks. Sounds like a fascinating tour.
…love his work too..didn’t he also
do quite a lot of drawings in colour pencils..?maybe theyre not heard about as
much…I think he used them a lot while
on holiday in Wales! He loved the scenery
there, but hated the heavy rain and winds
typical of Welsh weather..!Sarah
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