Artwork · 19th century · Alfred Sisley

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Allée of Chestnut Trees

Alfred Sisley1878Oil on canvas50.2 × 61 cm

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At a glance

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A path curves along a bend of the Seine under a row of chestnut trees in full spring bloom.
Alfred Sisley painted it in 1878, at about thirty-eight, while he was living in Sèvres, a town on the Seine near Paris.
Short, broken brushstrokes make leaves, blossoms, shadows and water seem to flicker, a good close look at Impressionist landscape painting.

Reading the picture

5 places to look closer

Tap a number on the painting to jump to its note, or a close-up to see that spot in the whole picture.

Zoom in on the two people walking on the left. They wear hats and walk side by side, yet they have no faces and no buttons, only a few dark strokes. Still, you can feel the easy pace of a stroll. Behind them, by the river, a boat and a few figures blur into the light.
Look at the carriage in the middle of the road. A single horse pulls a small cart with someone sitting up front, and each wheel is one quick curved line. The carriage is heading toward the bend. Your eye follows it deeper into the picture.
Zoom in on the far bank between the tree trunks on the left. Under a green hill, a bridge with a row of arches stretches across the river. The water below is laid in with broad strokes of grayish blue.
Look up into the leaves. Between the dark greens and yellow-greens sit soft, pinkish-white dabs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes these chestnuts as being in full bloom. Sisley does not paint each flower. He lets patches of light-struck paint stand for them.
Zoom in on the grass at lower right. The name Sisley is written there in dark paint. Next to it comes 78, for the year he painted it.

When it was painted

In 1878 Alfred Sisley was thirty-eight. He was born in Paris to English parents, and as a young man his father's silk business let him paint without worrying about money. But after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 that business collapsed, and Sisley had to support his family by selling his pictures.

By this time he was living in Sèvres, on the Seine just west of Paris, with his family. The Met says this picture was painted during those years. Sisley went back again and again to the river paths, bridges and trees close to home.

1878 was a hard year for the Impressionists. In June, after the bankruptcy of Ernest Hoschedé, a department store businessman who had collected their work, his pictures were auctioned off. Paintings by Sisley sold for very little. That same year the critic Théodore Duret published a short booklet introducing the Impressionist painters, and Sisley was one of them.

In 1880 Sisley moved to the area around Moret-sur-Loing. He never saw real success in his lifetime, and he died there in 1899. Much later this painting belonged to the American banker and collector Robert Lehman, and in 1975 it came to the Metropolitan Museum with his collection.

Look again at the path under the blossoming trees. Money was tight, but Sisley turned an ordinary spring day near home into this bright, pink-lit road.

The painter

Alfred Sisley

1839–1899

When painting this, the artist was about 39 years old

All paintings by Alfred Sisley →

More by the same painter

Sahurs Meadows in Morning Sun1894

Questions to think about

Look for itHow many people and carriages can you find in the picture?
Why?Why do you think Sisley left the people without faces, just a few dark strokes?
What about you?Sisley painted the roads near his home over and over instead of famous sights. On the route I walk every day, what scene would I want to paint?

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