About the Work
Together with Monet and Renoir, who were among his friends, Alfred Sisley is one of the main representatives of Impressionism. His great strength was focusing attention on unremarkable objects. Rows of poplars border the banks of the Seine. People out for a walk are enjoying the autumn mood, the rustling of the leaves and the gently lapping wavelets on the surface of the river. Sisley and his painter friends frequently undertook excursions in order to escape from the hustle and bustle of Paris. The artist was able to study and paint the river landscape in various moods of light.
About the Acquisition
On the occasion of the founding of the Städelscher Museums-Verein in 1899, Victor Mössinger (1857–1915) donated the first Impressionist painting of the collection: Sisley’s landscape. Mössinger was politically and culturally active in Frankfurt, and was a board member of the Museums-Verein. In 1912 he donated the money that made possible the acquisition of Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Portrait of Dr. Gachet’. Labelled ‘degenerate’, it was confiscated and was lost to the museum – about seventy years later, it became the most expensive painting in the world.
