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PRESS RELEASE
Major New Impressionist Loan for the Barber
A beautiful summer landscape by key Impressionist Alfred Sisley is to go on display at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts next week.
The gallery, based at the University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston campus, is renowned for its superb collection of French Impressionist paintings, which includes works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Degas. However, Sisley, renowned for his landscapes, has always been one of the few major artists of the movement conspicuous by his absence.
In 2008, the Barber attempted to purchase at auction a late seascape by the artist, but was outbid and failed to acquire the painting. Now this significant gap has been filled by the generous long-term loan of a particularly delightful example of the artist's work from a private family trust – Edge of the Forest – July Morning, 1889. The painting will go on display in the week of 26 July in the Blue Gallery, which houses 19th and 20th-century paintings and sculpture. It will hang among a fine contingent of French landscapes and seascapes by the Impressionists and their forerunners, such as Monet, Pissarro, Boudin and Courbet, to be enjoyed by gallery visitors from this summer.
This bright midsummer scene features a meadow beside woodland near Moret-sur-Loing, a charming town on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleu, just south-east of Paris. It was painted in 1889. Characteristically painted en plein air – outdoors – in oils on canvas, its brilliant colours and ability to capture of the effects of sunshine and nature epitomize Sisley's art at its most accomplished. Sisley returned to Moret to live for the final decade of his life in 1890.
Although Sisley is today viewed as a French Impressionist, he was born in Paris to wealthy English parents, who ran an export business there. He maintained links with Britain and came here to study commerce and improve his English in 1857. He later returned to London after the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, painting the Thames, visited the Isle of Wight in 1881 (no works survive) and spent an extended period in Wales over the summer of 1897.
Professor Ann Sumner, Director of the Barber Institute and a scholar of the artist, having co curated the exhibition Sisley in England and Wales at the National Gallery in London in 2008, welcomed the loan of the painting.
‘We delighted to have such a lovely and appropriate work, which fills a long-standing gap in the collection, on display,’ said Professor Sumner. ‘The Henry Barber Trust and the University of Birmingham join me in expressing their delight and gratitude for this exciting addition to the galleries.’
The new loan will be celebrated with a free, public lecture by Professor Sumner, at the National Gallery in London in 2008, on Wednesday 6 October at 1.10pm.
For further information or an image of the painting, or to arrange an interview with Professor Sumner, please contact the Barber’s Press and Marketing Officer, Andrew Davies on 0121 414 2946 or at andrewdavies@barber.org.uk.
| For further information, please contact Andrew Davies, Barber Press and Marketing Officer, on 0121 414 2946 or andrewdavies@barber.org.uk |