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Lot Essay
Alfred Sisley's paintings of South Wales are his only seascapes (P&V 865-881). They recall the atmospheric views of the Breton coast painted in 1886 by his friend Monet at Belle-Île-en-Mer (W.1084-1119). To the north-west of Cardiff, the Swansea area has a rocky, west facing coastline with high cliffs; it offers locations as impressive as the cliffs of Etretat, Dieppe and Pourville. At the suggestion of one of Sisley's most significant patrons of the 1880s and 1890s, François Depeaux, the artist spent July to September of 1897 in Penarth, near Cardiff and at Langland Bay on the Gower Peninsula. Sisley was accompanied on this trip by his long term partner Eugénie Lescouzec, with whom he was finally married in Cardiff, their stay at the Osborne Hotel in Langland Bay became their honeymoon.
From the Osborne Hotel, Sisley was within easy reach of Lady's Cove (now called Rotherslade Bay) and Storr's Rock. Sisley returned with a total seventeen works from Wales, several of which belonged to François Depeaux, who presented two to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (D.875,879). Another painting from this trip, Storr Rock, Lady's Cove - le soir was purchased by The National Museum of Cardiff at auction in 2004 and joins La falaise de Panarth, Le soir - temps orageux (P&V 867) purchased by the museum in 1993.
In his monograph on Sisley (1923, pp. 25-36), Gustave Geffroy discussed the paintings inspired by the Welsh coast: 'He sometimes left his retreat in Seine-et-Marne for summer excursions, on which he carries us in the mind's eye to the English [sic] coast, to Cardiff, at the foot of the cliffs at Penath [sic]. He offers us views of Lady's Cove, Storr Rock and Landgland [sic] Bay: beaches where the waves foam like mousseline; the rhythmic advance of the tides; rocks teeming with vegetation; the transparent shadows that the land casts across the sea; ships that pass, lost in immensity...' (quoted in exh. cat., Alfred Sisley, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992).
From the Osborne Hotel, Sisley was within easy reach of Lady's Cove (now called Rotherslade Bay) and Storr's Rock. Sisley returned with a total seventeen works from Wales, several of which belonged to François Depeaux, who presented two to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (D.875,879). Another painting from this trip, Storr Rock, Lady's Cove - le soir was purchased by The National Museum of Cardiff at auction in 2004 and joins La falaise de Panarth, Le soir - temps orageux (P&V 867) purchased by the museum in 1993.
In his monograph on Sisley (1923, pp. 25-36), Gustave Geffroy discussed the paintings inspired by the Welsh coast: 'He sometimes left his retreat in Seine-et-Marne for summer excursions, on which he carries us in the mind's eye to the English [sic] coast, to Cardiff, at the foot of the cliffs at Penath [sic]. He offers us views of Lady's Cove, Storr Rock and Landgland [sic] Bay: beaches where the waves foam like mousseline; the rhythmic advance of the tides; rocks teeming with vegetation; the transparent shadows that the land casts across the sea; ships that pass, lost in immensity...' (quoted in exh. cat., Alfred Sisley, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992).