Studio: international art (18.1900)

Alfred Sis ley

THE WORK OF ALFRED SIS- about by their great ancestors of the school of 1830.
LEY BY BURNLEY BIBB Ignored, humiliated, and excluded from official

honours, they have ended—without the ghost of a
Alfred Sisley's work, be it said with concession to public taste, to their eternal honour
regret, is done. His death in the early be it said—have ended by imposing themselves
days of the new year was keenly felt upon the world of art by force of talent,
within the circle of his influence, and widely re- " Although they have long ago won to their side
cognised in the world of Parisian culture as a the critics of intelligence, the valiant avant-garde
grievous loss. They had been scarcely more than of letters, and amateurs of taste, they have not yet
indifferent to him while he was still among them, finally conquered the great indifferent public ; yet
but when the brush fell from his hand they realised their works are finding their way little by little into
that something of light had gone out of landscape the most important collections, where connoisseurs
art. In his earlier effort he had carried forward and admire them side by side with the Millets, the
filled with new life the exquisite tradition of Corot; Corots, the Courbets, and Jongkinds, the Manets,
in his later manner he was preparing the way for and the great Japanese sous mattres with whom they
finer discoveries. own a genial relationship.

Sisley loved blue skies, and flying clouds, and " Our poor friend Sisley, alas ! will not assist at
the gliding river. Even " the grand pleiad of the the final triumph, which is near, and of which he
renaissance of landscape," Corot, Rousseau, and has seen but the dawning ; he is gone too soon,
the rest, had no deeper understanding of the magic and just at the moment when, in reparation for
of Nature. long injustice, full homage is about to be rendered

The work of Alfred Sisley began early in the those strong and charming qualities which make
seventies to make itself felt. The candour and him a painter exquisite and original among them
freshness of his thoughts could not fail to find some all, a magician of light, a poet of the heavens, of
recognition, but of assured success there was but the waters, of the trees—in a word, one of the most
little. Still, he worked on bravely, always "loyal and remarkable landscapists of this day."
ardent, never inactive during the long years which
realised so many works, all remarkable for they
were ever informed with the emotions of an artist
profoundly impressed by the beauties of Nature,
which reveal themselves only to those who can
commune with her in that language which is the
thought of the poet-painter." I quote from the
words of his confrere, A. Tavernier, spoken at the
grave of Alfred Sisley—words in which the grief of
old friendship was mingled with a critical estimation
of his value to art, which renders them peculiarly
suitable for transcription here in part. M. Tavernier
placed the notes of his address in my hands, to be
used as desired; their citation here has also been
approved by the family of the painter :

" Those to whom art is only a trade have never
known the great thoughts of the real artist face to
face with nature ; but, by using well-known formulas
and conventional processes, they are more likely
to be understood by the masses, who, in fact, find
little interest in really new and original work.

" The so-called Impressionists—a name born of
malice, but become a title of honour, a crown, in
despite of its too special significance—the Impres-
sionists have the great and rare merit of having
given a new direction to art. They have accom-
plished in French landscape of this end of the
century a revolution comparable to that brought alfrbd sisley from a photograph

XVIII. No. 81. —Dfxembf.r, 1899 149