The Chemin des Petits-Prés in By. Thunderstorm weather
Alfred Sisley, 1880
Painted by Alfred Sisley in 1880, this canvas shows a path at By, the Chemin des Petits-Prés, under a threatening thunderstorm sky. The oil on canvas is landscape in format, and the eye is drawn along the track as it disappears between meadows and vegetation, while the heavy atmosphere and the dim light across the sky set the mood of the scene. The composition has a close counterpart: Sisley's The Small Meadows in Spring, By (1881) depicts the same path, but reversed as in a mirror. Comparing the two allows us to see how the same location changes between a stormy day and a spring one, and it shows the painter's interest in returning to and varying a single motif.
The history of the picture is also part of its interest. It was found in 1949 in a private house in Kölblöd, Bavaria, Germany, after having been stolen or bought on the black market by Hermann Brandl. It now belongs to the holdings of the Musées Nationaux Récupération, an institution devoted to recovered works, although some sources place it at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Meudon, a reminder of how its location has shifted over time. Its journey is therefore as worth noting as its composition when considering the fate of this work.
- Painter
- Alfred Sisley
- Date
- 1880
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 55 × 74 cm
- Museum
- Musées Nationaux Récupération
- Genre
- landscape painting
More works by Alfred Sisley
