Loosen Up Your Painting Podcast

Though operating in the same avant-garde circle as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and others, Alfred Sisley never achieved their level of fame and financial success during his lifetime. In this episode, we'll explore the life, artistic career, and tragic end of this dedicated painter of subtle French landscapes. We'll trace Sisley's origins, his pivotal role in the Impressionist exhibitions of the 1870s-80s, and his perpetual struggles to sell his naturalistic depictions of the provinces despite support from dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Personal tragedies like his father's death and cancer diagnosis added to Sisley's melancholy in later years. A detailed 1897 retrospective exhibition failed to gain traction, leaving Sisley deeply disheartened before he died in 1899 at age 59. We'll examine how Sisley's modest, poetic vision and quiet dedication to capturing nature's fleeting beauty ultimately couldn't overcome the public's resistance to Impressionism. As we contrast Sisley&#