La Seine a' St. Mammes

Alfred Sisley’s La Seine à St. Mammès was a gift of Chicago civic leader, arts patron, and connoisseur Martin Ryerson, Jr. Ryerson was an honorary trustee of the Hackley Art Gallery board and son of Martin Ryerson, Sr., one of Muskegon’s early lumber barons. While Ryerson, Jr. did not choose to give the Gallery one of his Monets, the Sisley represents Monet’s abiding influence. The Seine was a favorite subject for artists, exemplified in Sisley’s view of the river’s sparkling waters framed by a grand, vigorously brushed tree and the shadows cast from its overarching branches.

This subject was an unusual one for Sisley. However, in 1880 and again in 1896 and 1897, Monet painted a series of works devoted to similar tree-lined riverbanks. As the MMA’s Sisley predates these paintings, perhaps La Seine à St. Mammès was a direct influence upon Monet’s river scenes.