First Snow at Veneux-Nadon

1878

Alfred Sisley

Artist, French, 1839 - 1899

An ice- and powder-blue sky swirled with faint peach takes up the top two-thirds of this landscape painting. A farm, field, road, and fence lie beyond the snow-dusted, spiky branches of a tree jutting into the scene from the lower right corner. The road extends from the bottom left corner into the distance near the left edge of the canvas. The fence cuts across the space closer to us, and the snowy field beyond reflects the cool blues of the sky. The pale green and peanut-brown farmhouse and buildings are topped with pale blue, snow-covered roofs. Dark forms near the road in the distance could be a person or a person and child, and two more people lean into the wind alongside the buildings to our right. The artist signed the lower left corner, “Sisley.”

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

From the artist 28 January 1881 to (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 19 July 1892 to Henri Vever [1854-1942]; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-2 February 1897, no. 105); purchased by (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 4 February 1897 to François Depeaux [1853-1920], Rouen. Adolphe A. Tavernier, Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6 March 1900, no. 71); purchased by Mancini, Paris. Charles L. de Hèle, Brussels; (Hèle sale, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, 13 June 1911, no. 12).[1] Louis Koch [1862-1930], Frankfurt.[2] Robert von Hirsch [1883-1977, second husband of Koch's daughter, Martha Koch Dreyfus], Basel, in 1957 until at least 1959.[3] Koch's grand-daughter and Von Hirsch's step-daughter, Lili-Charlotte Sarnoff [1916-2014], Bethesda, Maryland; gift (partial and promised) 1983 to NGA; gift completed 2015.
[1] Provenance according to François Daulte, Alfred Sisley: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1959: no. 279.
[2] Sarnoff collection records, in NGA curatorial files. Koch's name is not included in Daulte's catalogue raisonné.
[3] Von Hirsch lent the painting to a 1957 exhibition in Basel; Daulte 1959, no. 279.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1957

  • Basler Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle, Basel, 1957, no. 161, repro.

Bibliography

1959

  • Daulte, Francois. Alfred Sisley, catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint. Lausanne: Editions Durand-Ruel, 1959.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 376, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Sisley.

Wikidata ID

Q20188840

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