Picture of the day

Women Going to the Woods. 1866. Oil on canvas. Bridgestone Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

Alfred Sisley was born in Paris on 30th October 1839 into the family of a well-to-do English businessman William Sisley (1799-1879), see his portrait by Renoir. Between 1857 and 1861 he lived in London, preparing for a career in commerce. In 1862, having decided to become a painter, he entered the Atelier Gleyre in Paris and there met Monet, Renoir and Bazille. The friends often worked together in the open air in the Forest of Fontainebleau, in the suburbs of Paris.

Sisley first sent his paintings to the Paris Salon in 1866 and subsequently exhibited there in 1868 and 1870. During Franco-Prussian War Sisley lost all his possessions when the Prussian army overran the family's estate in Bougival, west of Paris. After the war his father was ruined, so the artist was left in desperate poverty for many years. Until 1880, he lived and worked in the countryside west of Paris, around Marly and Louveciennes, especially at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, Bougival and Port-Marly.

One can read his Biography here.