In 1864 when Charles Gleyre stopped teaching at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Sisley, Monet, Renoir, and Bazille were suddenly without even a nominal instructor. Two years later, Sisley?s first Salon entries reflected the influence of Corot and Daubigny. By the early seventies he was working in a mature Impressionist manner, typical of which is The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne.

Sisley?s style from 1870 is close to that of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro. In the present picture the riverside subject, the treat ment of the surface of the water, the transparency of the colored shadows, and the highly keyed chalky palette are typical of the first years of fully developed Impressionism. However, Sisley is distinguishable by his use of a brushstroke more precise in its description of form than that of most other Impressionists. He also defines spaces that resist the flattening effects that appealed to the others, especially Monet. In The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne the clear progression of the bridge into space conflicts with the flatten ing effect of the clear bright light. Sisley has joined an Impres sionist brushstroke and palette to a traditional conception of space. It is difficult to know the degree to which Sisley is an Impres sionist, or, to phrase the issue negatively, the degree to which Sisley has applied the Jook of Impressionism to a more traditional concept of landscape. Whatever the case, Sisley avoided the pit falls of a rising round plane, patterning, or other devices for flatten ing the picture space.

Sisley exhibited in the first Impressionist exhibition, and in three of the next seven. Durand-Ruel was the first to recognize the quality of Sisley?s work, but the artist was neither a critical nor a financial success at any time during his career. Like Degaàs The Dance Class (no. 17) and Carriage at the Races (no. 13), The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne was once in the collection of J.B. Faure; however, as Sterling and Salinger indicate, ” Although Faure, Doctor de Bellio, Doctor Viau, the restaurateur Eugene Murer, the editor Georges Charpentier, and the critic Théodore Duret were all sympathetic to Sisley, acquiring pictures by him and giving him financial help and encouragement, he was repeat edly in debt and in 1886 in desperation considered learning to make fans. In the spring of 1869 Durand-Ruel, who had opened a gallery in New York two years before, held a one-man showing there of works of Sisley” (Charles Sterling and Margaretta Salinger, French Paintings, a Catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume III, New York, 1967, p. 118).

Signed and dated (lower left): Sisley. 1872

Provenance:

[Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1872–73; bought from the artist on August 24, 1872, stock no. L.1877 for Fr 200; sold on April 15, 1873 for Fr 360 to Faure];

Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris (1873–d. 1914; ca. 1910–14, deposited with Durand-Ruel, Paris, date book no. L.11941);

his son, Louis Maurice Faure (1914–d.1915); his wife, Madame Louis Maurice Faure, Paris (1915–19; sold on February 1, 1919 to Georges Petit and Durand-Ruel);

[Georges Petit and Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, from 1919]; Alfred Bergaud, Paris (until 1920; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 1–2, 1920, no. 56, for Fr 37,200 to Gérard Fr?res);

[Gérard Fr?res, Paris, from 1920]; Fernand Bouisson, Paris (by 1930);

[Sam Salz, New York, as "La Seine à Bougival"]; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr., New York (by 1957–64)