OIL PAINTING: Forest Path, 1879
Sisley's paintings have also their mysterious aspects. What looks transparently easy and natural in Sisley's finest landscapes is in reality a matter of the subtlest possible negotiation between sky and water, shimmering foliage and the architecture of the suburbs (the suburbs of London, by the way, as much as of Paris). Sisley had the gift of making the atmosphere circulate right through to the tops of the branches of the trees.