The Road from Moret to Saint-Mammès

The Painting: The move away from the Paris region in 1880 must have been difficult for Alfred Sisley: he was not doing his best work, had few clients, and was probably forced to find a cheaper lifestyle for his family. However, this picture, painted several years later, is exceptionally calm and cheerful, suggesting that he was at home in the landscape. The white cottage with its red roof and balcony sits between the water—barely visible at left—and the thoroughfare, with no room to spare. A woman stands by the house. Two people have stopped on the road, which is warmed by the sun, and a third approaches from the right. The foliage is painted in a variety of dense summer greens with light glancing through the trees. The composition of the painting is set down in a pencil sketch in Sisley’s only complete drawings album, that from the Moreau-Nélaton collection (Musée du Louvre, Paris).[1] The sheet shows fewer figures and fewer trees, and the effect is flatter, with loose scribbly pencil work spread evenly over the surface. The shadows are marked in both painting and sketch, and, in both, the light falls from left to right. Sisley indicated that he began to use the notebook in November 1883 and he continued to do so through 1885. He took note of the locations in his sketch titles. The subject here is of such simplicity that it would otherwise have been unidentifiable.

Drawings: Although he is not generally thought of as a draftsman, Sisley left various miscellaneous works on paper: a few single sheets in pencil or colored crayon, several pastels, and two sketchbooks (one, incomplete, appeared in 2019 on the London art market, and the other is the Moreau-Nélaton album). Most of the drawings and pastels date after the artist’s departure from Sèvres, a suburb of Paris, to the village of Veneux-Nadon, between the forest of Fontainebleau and the confluence of the Loing and Seine rivers. The area was about two hours away by train in a relatively remote, undeveloped part of the country. Veneux and Les Sablons, where he also lived, are near Moret-sur-Loing, which was joined by a road running along the Loing river to the nearby town of Saint Mammès on the opposite bank.

Katharine Baetjer 2020

[1] The album (RF 11596) contains 61 mauve sheets measuring 12 x 19.5 cm, and the drawing—inscribed, upper right, in pencil, “la route de Moret / à St Mammès”—is sheet 8, recto. On the interior of the cloth-covered board binding, the artist noted “Croquis / Novembe 1883 / Sisley.”

Inscription: Signed (lower right): Sisley.

?[Ambroise Vollard, Paris]; Jules Strauss, Paris (until 1902; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 3, 1902, no. 54, for Fr 5,500, to Shumann); Mme S . . . . , Paris (until d.; her estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 18, 1934, no. 9, for Fr 23,100 to Schoeller); [André Schoeller, Paris, from 1934]; Arnold Sontag, Geneva (until 1956; sold with Pissarro's "Rue de l'Hermitage, Pontoise" on April 23 for $24,000 to Knoedler); [Knoedler, Paris and New York, 1956–57; stock no. A6329; sold February 12 for $21,600 to Payson]; Joan Whitney Payson, New York and Manhasset (1957–d. 1975)

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "From Goya to Wyeth: The Joan Whitney Payson Collection," September 13–October 12, 1980, no. 28 (as "La route de Moret à Sainte-Mammès").

Tokyo. Isetan Museum of Art. "From Goya to Wyeth: The Joan Whitney Payson Collection," October 17–December 9, 1980, no. 28.

François Daulte. Alfred Sisley: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Lausanne, 1959, unpaginated, no. 500, ill., dates it 1883, on the basis of a drawing of the same subject, no. 8, in one of Sisley's drawing books in the Cabinet des dessins (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 465, ill.

Sylvie Brame and François Lorenceau. Alfred Sisley: Catalogue critique des peintures et des pastels. Lausanne, 2021, pp. 214, 466, 550, no. 533, ill. (color), as "La route de Monet-sur-Loing à Saint-Mammès" and dates it about 1883.