River View
Provenance
[Georges Petit, Paris]. [Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, by 1941]. [possibly Pierre Nesi, an agent who frequently worked with Seligmann]. Ricardo [Richard] W[ilhelm] Staudt (1888–1955), Buenos Aires; by descent to Isabel Koenigs de Staudt, Buenos Aires, in 1955; estate of Isabel Koenigs de Staudt, Buenos Aires, by 1969; [Nicolas de Koenigsberg, Buenos Aires, acting on behalf of Jaime Perriaux, executor of de Staudt estate]; sold to Henry Pearlman, 17 Feb. 1969; shared by Henry and Alexander Pearlman; Alexander Pearlman sold his share to the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation in 1978, and Rose sold her shares to the Foundation in 1985.
Critical Perspective
Like many of his Impressionist colleagues, Alfred Sisley painted villages on the outskirts of Paris, both along the banks of the Seine river to the west and surrounding the Forest of Fontainebleau to the south. Railway lines laid in the early to mid-nineteenth century had made these largely rural hamlets easily accessible to city dwellers.
This painting was an unusual acquisition for Pearlman, a collector who generally favored post-Impressionism and later styles. Sisley was a landscape specialist who worked in the manner of Claude Monet, painting out of doors, directly from the motif, and employing touches of high-keyed colors in visible strokes that suggest a fleeting moment in time.