The Aqueduct at Louveciennes

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The Aqueduct at Louveciennes

Artist Alfred Sisley (French, 1839-1899)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1874

DimensionsPainting: 21 3/8 × 32 in. (54.3 × 81.3 cm)
Frame: 30 5/8 × 41 1/4 × 3 in. (77.8 × 104.8 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.371

Not on View

Label TextA relic of France’s royal past, the aqueduct at Louveciennes, also known as the Aqueduct at Marly, on the outskirts of Paris rises majestically against a brilliant autumn sky in Impressionist Alfred Sisley’s painting. It had been built in the 1600s as part of a complicated waterworks system designed to pump and carry water from the Seine to the elaborate cascades and fountains of the king’s gardens at Château de Marly and Versailles. Inoperable for about a decade at the time of this painting, the aqueduct remained a draw for tourists. However, Sisley includes only a lone horseman—a member of the local militia—passing by as if oblivious to the towering structure. The horseman’s presence serves to emphasize the note of isolation and neglect, as the aqueduct seems slowly encroached upon by the landscape in which it nestles. The slow undermining of the solidity of the man-made structure by ever-changing nature around it is enhanced by Sisley’s quick and varied brushwork, which creates a sense of shimmering impermanence.Published ReferencesBesson, G., Sisley, Paris, n.d., pl. 20.

Jedlicka, Gotthard, Sisley, Berne, 1949, repr. pl. 15.

Daulte, Francois, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint, Lausanne, 1959, no. 133, repr.

Time Magazine, Nov. 10, 1961, p. 72, repr. (col.).

Campbell, "Sisley: Impressionists at Skies," Art News, November 1961, repr. p. 50.

Lanes, J., "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: New York," Burlington Magazine, CVIII, Dec. 1966, p. 645, fig. 58.

Sutton, Denys, "Nineteenth-century Painting: Trends and Cross-Currents," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 488, repr. fig. 7.

Lee, Katharine C., "French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism," Toledo Museum of Art News, vol. 12, no. 3, Autumn 1969, repr. p. 78.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 153-154, pl. 251.

Alex Reid & Lefevre 1826-1876, London, 1976, repr. (col.) p. 59.

Cogniat, Raymond, Sisley, New York, 1978, repr. (col.) p. 36.

Shone, Richard, Sisley, Oxford, 1979, p. 9, repr. (col.) plate 25.

Lloyd, Christopher, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1981, repr. p. 42.

Lassaigne, Jacques, Sisley, Paris, 1983, p. 98, repr. (col.) fig. 142.

Duthy, Robin, "Sisley: the Art of Understatement," Connoisseur, vol. 218, no. 912, Jan. 1988, repr. p. 120.

New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Geneva, 1986, p. 165.

Grands Peintres, no. 43 [1988], repr. p. 5, (col.).

Shone, Richard, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 80, pl. 50 (col.) p. 82.

Gale, Iain, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 82, repr. p. 83 (col.).

Cogniat, Raymond, Sisley, Vaduz, 1992, repr. p. 41, (col.).

Johnston, William R., "Sisley: Master Impressionist," The Walters Monthly Bulletin, March 1993, p. 4, repr.

Shone, Richard, Sisley, London, 1994, p. 80, pl. 25 (col.).

Stevens, MaryAnne, "Un peintre entre deux traditions," in Alfred Sisley: poete de l'impressionisme, Paris, Reunion des Musee's Nationaux, 2002, p. 55, ill. 26, p. 56.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 259, repr. (col.).

Stevens, MaryAnne, Alfred Sisley: Impressionist Master, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2017, p. 90, repr. p. 101.

Exhibition HistoryParis, Durand-Ruel, Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley, 1899, no. 130.

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir et Sisley, 1925, no. 16.

Paris, Durand-Ruel, Tableaux de Sisley, 1930, no. 19.

London, Lefevre Gallery, Gericault to Renoir, 1951, no. 33.

New York, Paul Rosenberg, Loan Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley, 1961, repr. p. 8.

San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of the Honor, Barbizon Revisited, 1962.

Bordeaux, Musee des Beaux-Arts, La peinture francaise: collections americaines, 1966, no. 80, pl. 35.

New York, Wildenstein, Alfred Sisley, 1839-1899, 1966, no. 15, repr.

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, et al., Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, 1989-1990, no. 82, p. 186, repr. (col.).

Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, Alfred Sisley, 1992-1993, no. 23, p. 128, repr. (col.).

Greenwich, Bruce Museum, Alfred Sisley (1839-1899): Impressionist Master, January 21, 2017-May 21, 2017.