View of Montmartre from Cité des Fleurs to Les Batignolles
View of Montmartre from Cité des Fleurs to Les Batignolles is a painting by Alfred Sisley, produced in spring 1869 and now in the Musée de Grenoble, France Inv. MG 1317[1]). It was given to that museum in 1901 by the artist's friend and fellow painter Joseph-Auguste Rousselin,[2] only two years after Sisley's death. It is one of the first Impressionist paintings to depict Montmartre, showing it as a still rural area.
Context
Despite being born in Paris, Sisley did not find it easy to produce views of the city, instead preferring industrial subjects such as View of the Canal Saint-Martin or depicting the city from a distance as in this work. He painted it from his apartment at 27 Cité des Fleurs, Batignolles, where he lived with his companion Marie-Adélaïde-Eugénie Lescouezec[3] between 1867 and 1873[4] and where their children Pierre and Jeanne were born on 17 June 1867 and 29 January 1869. Richard Shone notes that even at this date Sisley's compositions showed more interest in the water and sky than in urban life and the buildings, meaning he was already effectively a landscape painter.[4] MaryAnne Stevens contrasts the work with the stormy skies and dramatic mills in the depictions of Montmartre by Georges Michel and Constant Troyon.[3]
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The Mill in Montmartre, c. 1820 by Georges Michel, Metropolitan Museum of Art -
Pente de Montmartre 1850 par Constant Troyon, National Gallery of Art -
Montmartre seen from boulevard des Batignolles in 2011
References
- ^ Françoise Cachin, L'impressionnisme, de France et d'Amérique: Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Artlys, 2007 ISBN 2854953169, 9782854953169, p. 54
- ^ Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art, 1985, p. 100}}
- ^ a b MaryAnne Stevens, in Sisley: Royal Academy of Arts, Londres, 3 juillet-18 octobre 1992, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 28 octobre 1992-31 janvier 1993, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 14 mars-13 juin 1993, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992, p. 106
- ^ a b Richard Shone, Éditions Phaidon, ISBN 0714894117, 2004, p. 38