Rare Still Life By Sisley Acquired By Wadsworth Atheneum

HARTFORD — Of the nearly 900 works produced by the Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley (French, 1839-1899), the majority are landscapes and only nine are still lifes. One of the finest of these rare still lifes by Sisley was recently acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Painted in 1888, “The Pike” — a substantial oil on canvas of 16½ by 31½ inches  — has fortunately remained in an excellent state of preservation. The unvarnished surface retains a sparkling immediacy that reveals Sisley’s deft and rapid brush strokes, which brilliantly capture the iridescent sheen of the fish’s scales, the smooth surfaces of its pale throat, and the vivid outlines of its mouth as it lies on a kitchen table. The adjacent bouquet of fresh green herbs suggests that this pike will be simply poached for dinner (rather than shredded for the culinary classic of quenelles).

This single acquisition makes two significant contributions to the Wadsworth Atheneum’s collection of French Impressionist art. It is both the first work by Sisley to enter the collection, and it is also the first still life — a major subject for the Impressionists — among the Atheneum’s landscapes and portraits by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Caillebotte and Degas.

The original owner of “The Pike” was the great French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830-1914), an early and important patron of the Impressionists and a friend to Sisley. Although Faure sold many paintings from his collection at several auctions, he kept “The Pike” and it passed to his daughter-in-law.

The works was in America briefly in the 1920s and more recently, it belonged to the distinguished Swiss collector Dr Fritz Nathan. The painting was included in exhibitions in Switzerland in 1958 and 1960 but has been unseen since that time.

Sisley, who was born to British parents in Paris, met fellow future Impressionists Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet, and Claude Renoir in the early 1860s. He adhered to the Impressionist approach throughout his career.

Sisley and Bazille worked closely together in 1866-67, and during this time Bazille painted a still life with a pike similar to the later painting by Sisley. It is possible that Sisley remembered Bazille’s example when he painted this one, or perhaps the sight of the beautiful fresh water pike being readied for dinner was inspiration enough.

Unlike Renoir and Monet, Sisley never achieved financial success, and he died in dire straights from throat cancer in 1899. His colleagues attended his funeral, after which Monet wrote that Sisley was “as great an artist as has ever lived.”

The painting, purchased in honor of Helene and Mark Eisner, by exchange, currently hangs in the permanent exhibition “Reflections and Shadows: Impressionism and Nineteenth-Century Style,” in the Wadsworth Atheneum’s first floor Huntington Galleries. It will also be included the special exhibition “Old Masters/New Directions: A Decade of Collecting,” August 6 to December 18, 2005.