curatorial

Alfred Sisley painted The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow during a stretch of extreme economic hardship. The artist struggled to support his family throughout his career, but his period of residence in Sèvres (1877–80), a suburb of Paris, was particularly difficult. Paul Durand-Ruel, Sisley’s dealer and principal source of income, was also in dire straits during the late 1870s, and he stopped purchasing pictures from Sisley between 1876 and 1879. It was only in 1880, when banker Jules Feder provided Durand-Ruel with much-needed capital, that he began acquiring Sisley’s works again.¹Caroline Durand-Ruel Godefroy, “Paul Durand-Ruel and Alfred Sisley: 1872–1895,” in MaryAnne Stevens, ed., Alfred Sisley, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1992), 36–38. Sisley’s grim financial prospects at this time find their visual corollary in this landscape, an austere winter scene with a muted palette of grays and browns. The composition is divided into two bands of roughly equal size: an overcast sky dominates the upper register, while days-old snow and opaque water fill the bottom one. Apart from Sisley, only a few brave souls have ventured outdoors. The men huddled at the water’s edge draw our eye thanks to the jagged diagonal extending from the bottom right corner to the horizon. Their raised arms suggest that they are signaling the boats offshore. Like Sisley, these figures keep working under harsh conditions.

Fig. 1. Bulletin dated January 11, 1926, announcing the commune’s name change. The heading reads: “Boulogne will henceforth be called Boulogne-Billancourt.” Archives municipales de Boulogne-Billancourt

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Fig. 2. Map of Boulogne-Billancourt, France

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Fig. 3. Berthaud Frères, Boulogne-sur-Seine—The Seine between Saint-Cloud and Boulogne, ca. 1908, postcard, 5 1/2 x 3 9/16 in. (14 x 9 cm), Archives municipales de Boulogne-Billancourt

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Fig. 4. Alfred Sisley, Banks of the Seine in Winter, ca. 1879, oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in. (46 x 55 cm), private collection. Courtesy of Simon C. Dickinson Ltd

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Both paintings caught the eye of Durand-Ruel, who acquired them within two years of one another—the Kansas City work in 1892 from French dealer Gaston-Alexandre Camentron (1862–1919) and the privately owned canvas in 1894 from the posthumous sale of French businessman Léon Clapisson.¹²For Clapisson’s life and career, see Anne Distel, “Léon Clapisson: Patron and Collector,” in Bailey, Renoir’s Portraits, 76–86. The former remained in Durand-Ruel’s possession for thirty-five years, initially at the firm’s Paris gallery (from 1892 to 1897) but later transferred to its New York branch (from 1897 to 1927). During this lengthy period of ownership, Durand-Ruel Galleries lent the picture to its competitor, Galerie Georges Petit, for an 1897 retrospective on Sisley and also mounted in-house exhibitions on the artist in 1917 and 1921, both of which included the Nelson-Atkins work.¹³The exhibitions in question were Exposition Alfred Sisley, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 5–28, 1897; Exhibition: Paintings by Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, March 24–April 7, 1917; and Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, January 8–22, 1921. These shows were well received. Several critics admired Sisley’s four-season approach; that is, his tendency to represent the same landscapes at different times of year. A visitor to the 1897 retrospective remarked: “I cannot express how much I love this sensitive and modest Sisley, among all the Impressionists, who is exhibiting some of his work at Petit’s. . . . In his paintings, he wishes only to bring to life the serene splendor of summer skies, the poignant melancholy of autumn skies, the innocent sweetness of spring skies, [and] the dreary sadness of winter skies.”¹⁴Montmirail, “Notes d’un badaud,” Le Gaulois, no. 5588 (February 20, 1897): 1. “Je ne saurais dire combien j’aime entre tous les impressionnistes ce délicat et simple Sisley qui expose chez Petit une partie de son œuvre. . . . Il ne souhaite que de faire revivre dans ses tableaux la sereine splendeur des ciels d’été, la mélancholie douloureuse des ciels d’automne, la douceur virginale des ciels de printemps, la morne tristesse des ciels d’hiver.” All translations are by Brigid M. Boyle. Twenty years later, when The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow was on display in New York, an American critic offered similar words of praise and singled out the Kansas City painting as emblematic of this trend:

[Sisley] loved best to picture with his facile brush, the smoothly flowing pellucid Seine and Loing, and the quiet little villages which nestle under their low banks—and to picture them at all seasons, in drowsy summer noontides, on spring mornings, in Indian summer, and again on still wintry days. Here, for example, is the bank at Billancourt on a late spring day, with its luscious greens, and the same scene on a calm winter morning, with soft snow over all.¹⁵“Exhibitions Now On: Sisley at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 15, no. 25 (March 31, 1917): 2.

Both writers lauded Sisley as an astute observer of natural phenomena who excelled at painting the French countryside, no matter the season.

These exhibitions did not immediately yield a sale of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow, but in 1927 Durand-Ruel at last found a buyer: Kansas City dealer Effie Seachrest (1869–1952). The daughter of a cattle farmer, Seachrest was an unlikely advocate for modern art. She studied for two years at the University of Chicago, intending to become a writer, and then continued her education at the Stacy Art School (today the Kansas City Art Institute).¹⁶For accounts of Seachrest’s life, see Madeleine Johnston, “Penpoint Portraits of Kansas City Women: Effie Seachrest, Art Advisor,” Kansas City Star, November 3, 1929, 7C; Edward R. Schauffler, “Taking Up Art For Art’s Sake: It Became Her Life Work,” Kansas City Star, July 14, 1946, 4C; “Miss Effie Seachrest: The Art Connoisseur and Collector Dies at 83,” Kansas City Times, March 24, 1952, 8; Donald L. Hoffmann, “Effie Seachrest, a Little Lady Who Brought Great Art Here,” Kansas City Star, August 28, 1966, 1E; Daniel MacMorris, “Artist Adds a Word Picture of Effie Seachrest,” Kansas City Star, September 17, 1966, 16; and Homage to Effie Seachrest, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1966), 5–7. Unmarried, she supported herself by teaching third grade at a local elementary school but eventually resigned to pursue her true passion. By traveling regularly to New York and Europe, often accompanied by other Kansas City women, Seachrest slowly grew her network and began buying art, sometimes on consignment, which she sold out of her home, dubbed the Little Gallery in the Woods. Her 1927 purchase of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow was significant: it was quite possibly the first painting by Sisley to enter a Kansas City collection.¹⁷Seachrest purchased at least two other paintings by Sisley at unknown dates, The Dam at Saint-Mammès and Vieilles maisons (Old Houses). She lent the latter to the Nelson-Atkins in 1934. I thank MacKenzie Mallon, specialist, provenance, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, for this information. The Nelson-Atkins would not acquire anything by the artist until 1931, when agent Harold Woodbury Parsons facilitated the museum’s purchase of a Giverny scene by him.¹⁸See “In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star, April 4, 1931, E. This work was later deaccessioned. For Parsons, see MacKenzie Mallon, “Laying the Foundation: Harold Woodbury Parsons and the Making of an American Museum,” in Susan Bracken and Adriana Turpin, eds., Art Markets, Agents, and Collectors: Collecting Strategies in Europe and the United States, 1550–1950 (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021), 306–15. Seachrest’s strategy for placing artworks with local collectors was twofold: she hosted regular classes in art appreciation for women, and she presented her latest finds in her gallery. In February 1929, for example, Seachrest exhibited “canvases by Sisley, Utrillo, Moret, Maufrau [sic], and Mary Cassatt.” Kansas City Star critic Minna K. Powell was among those who flocked to Seachrest’s house, saying: “Impressive names and imposing prices thrill visitors to the Little Gallery in the Woods, where Miss Effie Seachrest has on display a number of French importations.”¹⁹M[inna] K. P[owell], “In Gallery and Studio: News and Views of the Week in Art,” Kansas City Star, February 9, 1929, 6. In all likelihood, this display included the Nelson-Atkins picture.

One of the women who attended Seachrest’s lectures was Kansas City resident Mildred Brace (née White, 1882–1975). Seachrest’s classes grew rapidly in size and popularity, so Brace and other women took turns providing luncheons for the attendees.²⁰For example, Brace served lunch to Seachrest’s guests on December 1, 1942. See “Society,” Kansas City Times, December 1, 1942, 4. As Brace’s exposure to modern art increased, she and her husband, William James Brace (1875–1960), began building a collection. Their home at The Walnuts, a luxury high-rise, was soon decorated with paintings, prints, and sculptures by Albert André (1869–1954), Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929), Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874–1939), Childe Hassam (1859–1935), Robert Henri (1865–1929), Camille Pissarro (1831–1903), and Sisley. They purchased The Embankment of Billancourt—Snow from Seachrest at an unknown date, most likely in the late 1920s or 1930s.²¹No purchase invoice survives, but James Reuland, grandson of Mildred and William James Brace, believes they acquired The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow from Seachrest “well before 1950 (and I imagine also well before the 1942 event),” by which he means the luncheon Mildred Brace hosted in 1942 (see note 20). James Reuland to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, March 23, 2022, NAMA curatorial files. A black-and-white photograph of the couple’s living room shows William James Brace playing a Hammond B3 electric organ with Sisley’s landscape and Hassam’s Marlborough Street, Boston (ca. 1889) hanging directly above him (Fig. 5). William James was passionate about organ music, so the paintings installed above his beloved instrument must have occupied a place of honor within the home.²²I thank James and Terrence Reuland for sharing memories of their grandfather’s organ-playing. For more on the Braces, see their obituaries: “W. J. Brace is Dead: Former Gleaner Firm Head was 84,” Kansas City Times, August 30, 1960, 3; and “Mrs. Mildred Brace,” Kansas City Star, March 17, 1975, 5. Both pictures remained in the Brace family until Mildred’s death in 1975, when the Nelson-Atkins received them as a bequest.

Fig. 5. FotoService, William James Brace playing a Hammond B3 electric organ in his living room at The Walnuts, Kansas City, MO, 1950s. Courtesy of James Reuland

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Notes

1. Caroline Durand-Ruel Godefroy, “Paul Durand-Ruel and Alfred Sisley: 1872–1895,” in MaryAnne Stevens, ed., Alfred Sisley, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1992), 36–38.

2. The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow is signed but undated. When the painting was first displayed at the Exposition Alfred Sisley, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 5–28, 1897, it appeared as La Berge, à Billancourt, neige, 1879 in the exhibition catalogue. The same date is given for the picture in both catalogues raisonnés of Sisley’s work. See François Daulte, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Lausanne: Éditions Durand-Ruel, 1959), no. 347, unpaginated; and Sylvie Brame and François Lorenceau, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue critique des peintures et des pastels (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 2021), no. 376, p. 164. A Durand-Ruel label on the painting’s stretcher bears an alternative date of 1873, but the latter is almost certainly erroneous. Sisley is not known to have painted at Boulogne-Billancourt prior to 1877; see MaryAnne Stevens, independent scholar, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, April 21, 2022, NAMA curatorial files. According to Flavie Durand-Ruel, incorrect dates of creation for artworks are not uncommon in Durand-Ruel’s records; see Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel et Cie, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, April 19, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

3. For Sisley’s other paintings of Boulogne-Billancourt, see Brame and Lorenceau, Alfred Sisley, nos. 267–76, 303, 305–10, 324, and possibly 380, pp. 127–29, 138–41, 147, and 165. Boulogne-Billancourt belongs to the so-called “belle boucle de la Seine” (beautiful loop of the Seine), an area extending from Issy-les-Moulineaux to Suresnes. It was so named by Albert Bezançon, one of the founders of Société historique de Boulogne-Billancourt. See Les peintres de la “belle boucle” de la Seine, 1800–1930, exh. cat. (Issy-les-Moulineaux, France: Musée Français de la Carte à Jouer de la Ville d’Issy-les-Moulineaux, 2015), 11.

4. Paris absorbed Auteuil and ten other communes in 1860. See Penel Beaufin, Histoire complète et Inédite, Religieuse, Politique, Sociale et Descriptive de Boulogne-Billancourt: Depuis les Origines jusqu’à nos Jours (Boulogne-sur-Seine: A. Doizelet, 1905), 2:264.

5. See Alexis Monnerot-Dumaine, “De Boulogne et Billancourt à Boulogne-Billancourt,” Le Village de Billancourt, September 27, 2020, https://levillagedebillancourt.fr/2020/09/27/de-boulogne-et-billancourt-a-boulogne-billancourt; and Alexis Monnerot-Dumaine, “Quand Billancourt voulait devenir une commune indépendante,” Le Village de Billancourt, May 14, 2022, https://levillagedebillancourt.fr/2022/05/14/quand-billancourt-voulait-devenir-une-commune-independante.

6. Beaufin, Histoire complète et Inédite, 2:298.

7. Alphonse Le Gallo was a longtime mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt. I am indebted to Claude Colas, chef du service des Archives municipales de Boulogne-Billancourt, and Alexis Monnerot-Dumaine, author of the blog Le Village de Billancourt: Quand Billancourt était au milieu des champs (https://levillagedebillancourt.fr/r), for their help in identifying Sisley’s location.

8. It is unknown when this house was constructed or demolished. The town cadastres (property registers) of 1860 and 1905 make no mention of a building at this site. Claude Colas, Archives municipales de Boulogne-Billancourt, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, July 21, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

9. Indeed, the Legrand port at the Alphonse Le Gallo quay is currently the focus of a major urban project. HAROPA PORT, the agency that oversees the ports of Le Havre, Rouen, and Paris, is redeveloping this site in 2022–23. Planned improvements include upgrades to existing port facilities, a new pedestrian side path, and better points of access for vehicles. See “Redevelopment of the Legrand port in Boulogne-Billancourt,” HAROPA PORT, April 5, 2022, https://www.haropaport.com/en/paris/redevelopment-legrand-port-boulogne-billancourt-92.

10. See Daulte, Alfred Sisley, no. 348, unpaginated; and Brame and Lorenceau, Alfred Sisley, no. 380, p. 165. Daulte assigned the two paintings sequential numbers (the Nelson-Atkins work is no. 347), presumably in recognition of this resemblance.

11. For a concurring opinion, see Alexis Monnerot-Dumaine, independent scholar, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, July 19, 2022, NAMA curatorial files. Another possibility is that the privately owned picture depicts Suresnes, a suburb just north of Boulogne-Billancourt on the left bank of the Seine. French businessman Léon Clapisson (1836–94), the painting’s first known owner, recorded its title as Un dégel (Suresnes) (A Thaw [Suresnes]) and its year of creation as 1880 in his notebook. See Anne Distel, “Appendix II: The Notebooks of Léon Clapisson,” in Colin B. Bailey, Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 354. Whether this information is reliable is open to debate: at Clapisson’s posthumous sale, the work received a different title, Les Bords du Loing en hiver (The Banks of the Loing in Winter). See Catalogue de Tableaux modernes, Pastels, Aquarelles et Dessins; Tableaux et Dessins anciens; Composant la Collection de M. X*** (Paris: Hotel Drouot, April 18, 1894), 11. If the picture’s setting is indeed Suresnes, then Sisley surely had the Nelson-Atkins picture in mind when painting it.

12. For Clapisson’s life and career, see Anne Distel, “Léon Clapisson: Patron and Collector,” in Bailey, Renoir’s Portraits, 76–86.

13. The exhibitions in question were Exposition Alfred Sisley, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 5–28, 1897; Exhibition: Paintings by Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, March 24–April 7, 1917; and Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, January 8–22, 1921.

14. Montmirail, “Notes d’un badaud,” Le Gaulois, no. 5588 (February 20, 1897): 1. “Je ne saurais dire combien j’aime entre tous les impressionnistes ce délicat et simple Sisley qui expose chez Petit une partie de son œuvre. . . . Il ne souhaite que de faire revivre dans ses tableaux la sereine splendeur des ciels d’été, la mélancholie douloureuse des ciels d’automne, la douceur virginale des ciels de printemps, la morne tristesse des ciels d’hiver.” All translations are by Brigid M. Boyle.

15. “Exhibitions Now On: Sisley at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 15, no. 25 (March 31, 1917): 2.

16. For accounts of Seachrest’s life, see Madeleine Johnston, “Penpoint Portraits of Kansas City Women: Effie Seachrest, Art Advisor,” Kansas City Star, November 3, 1929, 7C; Edward R. Schauffler, “Taking Up Art For Art’s Sake: It Became Her Life Work,” Kansas City Star, July 14, 1946, 4C; “Miss Effie Seachrest: The Art Connoisseur and Collector Dies at 83,” Kansas City Times, March 24, 1952, 8; Donald L. Hoffmann, “Effie Seachrest, a Little Lady Who Brought Great Art Here,” Kansas City Star, August 28, 1966, 1E; Daniel MacMorris, “Artist Adds a Word Picture of Effie Seachrest,” Kansas City Star, September 17, 1966, 16; and Homage to Effie Seachrest, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1966), 5–7.

17. Seachrest purchased at least two other paintings by Sisley at unknown dates: The Dam at Saint-Mammès and Vieilles maisons (Old Houses). She lent the latter to the Nelson-Atkins in 1934. I thank MacKenzie Mallon, specialist, provenance, NAMA, for this information.

18. See “In Gallery and Studio,” Kansas City Star, April 4, 1931, E. This work was later deaccessioned. For Parsons, see MacKenzie Mallon, “Laying the Foundation: Harold Woodbury Parsons and the Making of an American Museum,” in Susan Bracken and Adriana Turpin, eds., Art Markets, Agents, and Collectors: Collecting Strategies in Europe and the United States, 1550–1950 (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021), 306–15.

19. M[inna] K. P[owell], “In Gallery and Studio: News and Views of the Week in Art,” Kansas City Star, February 9, 1929, 6.

20. For example, Brace served lunch to Seachrest’s guests on December 1, 1942. See “Society,” Kansas City Times, December 1, 1942, 4.

21. No purchase invoice survives, but James Reuland, grandson of Mildred and William James Brace, believes they acquired The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow from Seachrest “well before 1950 (and I imagine also well before the 1942 event),” by which he means the luncheon Mildred Brace hosted in 1942 (see note 20). James Reuland to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, March 23, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

22. I thank James and Terrence Reuland for sharing memories of their grandfather’s organ-playing. For more on the Braces, see their obituaries: “W. J. Brace is Dead: Former Gleaner Firm Head was 84,” Kansas City Times, August 30, 1960, 3; and “Mrs. Mildred Brace,” Kansas City Star, March 17, 1975, 5.

conservation

The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow was executed on medium-weight, plain-weaveplain weave: A basic textile weave in which one weft thread alternates over and under the warp threads. Often this structure consists of one thread in each direction, but threads can be doubled (basket weave) or tripled to create more complex plain weave. Plain weave is sometimes called tabby weave. canvas that has been lined. Sisley, along with most of the Impressionists, was known to use grainy (à grain), coarse canvas,¹Anthea Callen, The Art of Impressionism: Painting Technique and the Making of Modernity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 33. but the texture likely became more pronounced as a result of the lining treatment. The canvas is tensioned to a six-membered wooden stretcherstretcher: A wooden structure to which the painting’s canvas is attached. Unlike strainers, stretchers can be expanded slightly at the joints to improve canvas tension and avoid sagging due to humidity changes or aging. with a horizontal and vertical crossbar. The dimensions are consistent with a standard-formatstandard-format supports: Commercially prepared supports available through art suppliers, which gained popularity in the nineteenth century during the industrialization of art materials. Available in three formats figure (portrait), paysage (landscape), and marine (marine), these were numbered 1 through 120 to indicate their size. For each numbered size, marine and paysage had two options available: a larger format (haute) and smaller (basse) format. no. 10 figure canvas (55 x 46 centimeters). Although manufacturers intended figure supports to be used for vertical portraits and paysage or marine ones for horizontal landscapes or seascapes, French Impressionists like Sisley often chose whichever type they liked or could access despite their subject matter.²Iris Schaefer, Caroline von Saint-George, and Katja Lewerentz, Painting Light: The Hidden Technique of the Impressionists (Milan: Skira, 2008), 51–52; Sandra Webber, “Colormen and Their Marks: A Survey of Nineteenth-Century European Paintings in the Clark Art Institute,” Art Conservator 9, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 19–22.

Fig. 6. Detail of the lower center of the vertical crossbar, showing the oval black stamp (“10 w.”), The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

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At the lower center of the vertical crossbar, “10w.” surrounded by an oval is stamped in black ink (Fig. 6). The number likely relates to the dimensions since nearly identical stamps that match the paintings’ respective standard sizes have been noted on another Sisley painting in the collection, The Lock of Saint-Mammès (1885), and on the stretchers of two Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) paintings.³Another Sisley in the Nelson-Atkins collection, The Lock of Saint-Mammès (1885), also bears the oval “10w.” stamp oriented to match the painting’s horizontal format in the lower center of its crossbar. Its stretcher is a standard-size no. 10 paysage (55 x 38 cm), indicating that the marking is accurate in terms of the overall dimensions. Renoir’s Madame Léon Clapisson (1883; Art Institute of Chicago) has “25 w.” encircled in a black oval stamped on the crossbar. The painting measures 81.2 x 65.3 cm, which closely matches the standard-size no. 25 figure (81 x 65 cm). The marking corresponds to the vertical orientation of the portrait, but the entire stretcher was installed upside-down during a later treatment. Kelly Keegan, “Cat. 17. Madame Léon Clapisson, 1883: Technical Report,” in Renoir: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), fig. 17.17, https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135645. Renoir’s Fruits of the Midi (1881; Art Institute of Chicago) has “15 w.” encircled in a black oval stamped on the crossbar. The painting measures 50 x 64 cm, which closely matches standard-size no. 15 paysage (50 x 65 cm). The marking is upside-down relative to the horizontal orientation of the still life. Kelly Keegan, “Cat. 14. Fruits of the Midi, 1881: Technical Report,” in Renoir: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, fig. 14.11, https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135642. The Lock of Saint-Mammès has a supplier’s stamp on the back of the canvas from H. Vieille and E. Troisgros. The Embankment does not appear to have this stamp.⁴The canvas reverse is covered by the lining canvas, but no stamp was noted in transmitted light. Since these two paintings likely came from different suppliers but still bear the same oval markings, the stamps seem not to have been added to the stretcher by either the manufacturer or supplier. Moreover, the marking on The Embankment is in the correct orientation relative to the finished work—not the expected orientation for a figure painting—suggesting it was stamped after the work was completed. The same marking is found twice on the painting’s frame: once on the top member just right of center and once at the center of the left member. In order to comfortably fit the painting, the frame’s rabbetframe rabbet: A recessed inner channel or groove on the back of a picture frame that secures artwork and/or glazing within the frame. Frame rabbets are typically padded with a soft material to prevent frame abrasion or indentations where it comes into contact with the artwork. Referred to as “rebate” in British English is approximately the same size as the painting, which is to say a standard-size no. 10 figure. Thus, marking the frame could have facilitated the pairing of many paintings and frames of varying sizes. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the painting was in the possession of the dealer Durand-Ruel, who occasionally framed paintings in large numbers for exhibitions.⁵Lynn Roberts, Mark Mitchell, and Paul Mitchell, “Framing Impressionism,” London Art Week, virtual lecture, April 24, 2024, posted July 8, 2024, by London Art Week, YouTube, at 37:44–41:42, https://youtu.be/WtzP_q-SKJ4?si=HTLY-DO1DqfvgeER&t=2263. For further discussion of the Impressionists’ frames, see Schaefer, Von Saint-George, and Lewerentz, Painting Light, 179–82.

Without the original tacking marginstacking margins: The outer edges of canvas that wrap around and are attached to the stretcher or strainer with tacks or staples. See also tacking edge., it is difficult to discern if the canvas was commercially primed or prepared by the artist. Extensive fillsfill material: A material added to a loss of paint and/or ground to create an area level with the surrounding original paint. and retouchingretouching: Paint application by a conservator or restorer to cover losses and unify the original composition. Retouching is an aspect of conservation treatment that is aesthetic in nature and that differs from more limited procedures undertaken solely to stabilize original material. Sometimes referred to as inpainting or retouch. around the perimeter of the original canvas cover any trace of exposed groundground layer: An opaque preparatory layer applied to the support, either commercially or by the artist, to prevent absorption of the paint into the canvas or panel. See also priming layer.. Within the picture planepicture plane: The two-dimensional surface where the artist applies paint., broken brushstrokes occasionally reveal the interstices of the canvas, which are covered with a thin layer of white mixed with blue and green pigment (Fig. 7). It is not clear if this layer is the ground or simply a lower layer of paint. However, the former is more likely for two reasons: the color is consistent with ground layers found on other Sisley paintings, and underdrawingunderdrawing: A drawn or painted sketch beneath the paint layer. The underdrawing can be made from dry materials, such as graphite or charcoal, or wet materials, such as ink or paint. is occasionally present on top of this cool gray layer, suggesting it is a preparatory layer applied before Sisley began planning the composition.

Fig. 7. Photomicrograph of the charcoal underdrawing on top of a white or gray ground, The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

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The sparse underdrawing is visible under high magnification as bits of splintered charcoal (see Fig. 7). The granular, unbound medium differs from black paint found in the trees and boat. The underdrawing was primarily observed in the horizon and strip of greenery that forms the bank, indicating Sisley used minimal preparatory sketching to establish the foundational shapes and angles.

Sisley first painted the strip of grass along the bank. The broken green brushstrokes reveal the lowest observable layers (the ground and underdrawing), and all subsequent paint layers overlap the greenery. The rest of the imagery was mostly painted in a thin, wet-into-wetwet-into-wet: An oil painting technique which involves blending of colors on the picture surface. layer, suggesting he captured the scene primarily in one sitting. His counterintuitive use of sweeping, energetic brushstrokes does not detract from the overall stillness of the scene, which he maintained through the use of somber colors. Even the more saturated colors like a stroke of bright green placed adjacent to muddied brownish green in the grassy bank, red dulled with deep blue in the trees, and pure acid yellow in the highlights of the house are not joyful. The grays and subtle variations of white, pink, and blue that form the sky read darker and heavier than the bright snow on the ground. Sisley painted the sky with intermixing strokes formed with a large bristle brush (Fig. 8). In contrast, he depicted the snow with interrupted wet-over-wetwet-over-wet: An oil painting technique which involves drawing a stroke of one color across the wet paint of another color. and wet-over-drywet-over-dry: An oil painting technique that involves layering paint over an already dried layer, resulting in no intermixing of paint or disruption to the lower paint strokes. brushstrokes, tinged with cool lavender and warm cream colors. This layered approach and interplay between cool and warm allude to the softness of the untouched snow in contrast to the compacted or partially melted snow.

Fig. 8. Photomicrograph in raking light of wet-into-wet brushstrokes and several brush hairs in the sky, The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

fullscreen Fig. 8. Photomicrograph in raking light of wet-into-wet brushstrokes and several brush hairs in the sky, The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

Fig. 9. Photomicrograph of red paint placed over a fully dried white peak of paint at the horizon above the rightmost boat, The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

fullscreen Fig. 9. Photomicrograph of red paint placed over a fully dried white peak of paint at the horizon above the rightmost boat, The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

Further instances of wet-over-dry application are present, indicating that Sisley surely revisited the painting after his initial session to add final touches. For example, red paint was placed over a fully dried white peak of paint at the horizon above the rightmost boat (Fig. 9), and the figures on the bank were added after the water and snow were dry (Fig. 10). The signature, which is a mixture of green and blue paint, also appears to have been applied after the underlying layers had dried.

Fig. 10. Photomicrograph of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879), showing the boat was painted first and covered slightly by the white paint of the water. The figure’s legs were painted after the underlying paint was dry.

fullscreen Fig. 10. Photomicrograph of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879), showing the boat was painted first and covered slightly by the white paint of the water. The figure’s legs were painted after the underlying paint was dry.

Fig. 11. Photomicrograph of possible foamy, white alteration product of red lake in the shoreline of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

fullscreen Fig. 11. Photomicrograph of possible foamy, white alteration product of red lake in the shoreline of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879)

Alteration of red lake may be present in the crimson head of the leftmost figure on the bank and in the shoreline (Fig. 11). Although no analysis has been undertaken, the foamy appearance of this area under high magnification is similar to the starchy product found on Gauguin’s red lake in The Seine at Pont de Grenelle (1875; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Fondation Corboud, Cologne).⁶Schaefer, Von Saint-George, and Lewerentz, Painting Light, 200.

Microscopic pockmarks are present throughout the most thinly painted areas, suggesting they formed in the ground layer. Perhaps the indentations relate to metal soap formation or to the lininglining: A procedure used to reinforce a weakened canvas that involves adhering a second fabric support using adhesive, most often a glue-paste mixture, wax, or synthetic adhesive. process (Fig. 12).⁷Since the lining was performed with a water-based glue, the process may have caused bubbles and disturbances in the water-soluble ground layer. Scattered dots of retouching along the warp and weft of the canvas may substantiate the theory that the pockmarks were caused by lining. Several Sisley paintings, including La Terrasse de Saint-Germain, Spring (1875; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) and The Boulevard Héloïse, Argenteuil (1872; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), also underwent lining with a similar adhesive and incurred pinpoint losses in the colored ground layer along the tops of the canvas threads. Eric Gordon also recounts second-hand information about an unnamed painting in Hamburg with the same condition issues. See Eric Gordon, “Restoring Balance: Reintegrating a Damaged Sky in Alfred Sisley’s La Terrasse de Saint-Germain,” Journal of the Walters Art Museum 70/71 (2012): 126–28, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24412699. Dots of retouchingretouching: Paint application by a conservator or restorer to cover losses and unify the original composition. Retouching is an aspect of conservation treatment that is aesthetic in nature and that differs from more limited procedures undertaken solely to stabilize original material. Sometimes referred to as inpainting or retouch. are scattered throughout the painting, and a larger section of retouching, measuring about 1.3 centimeters in diameter, is present at the upper center of the composition. According to notes taken in 1976, the fill material and retouching covering the edges around the original canvas predate the landscape’s acquisition.⁸Forrest Bailey, handwritten examination notes, 1976, NAMA conservation file, no. 75-6.

Fig. 12. Photomicrograph in raking light of pockmarks in the ground layer of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879). Since the lining was performed with a water-based glue, the process may have caused bubbles and disturbances in the water-soluble ground layer.

fullscreen Fig. 12. Photomicrograph in raking light of pockmarks in the ground layer of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879). Since the lining was performed with a water-based glue, the process may have caused bubbles and disturbances in the water-soluble ground layer.

Fig. 13. Photomicrograph of the house at the far left of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879), revealing yellowed varnish in the interstices of the paint

fullscreen Fig. 13. Photomicrograph of the house at the far left of The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow (ca. 1879), revealing yellowed varnish in the interstices of the paint

In addition to the early treatment in which the lining was performed, three other known treatments were undertaken in 1949, 1976, and 2004.⁹At the back, the first label that was placed on top of the lining dates from 1927 at the earliest. Thus, the lining was probably performed prior to 1927. The original tacking margins were removed during the lining, but heavy cuspingcusping: A scalloped pattern along the canvas edges that relates to how the canvas was stretched. Primary cusping reveals where tacks secured the canvas to the support while the ground layer was applied. Secondary cusping can form when a pre-primed canvas is re-stretched by the artist prior to painting. from an old set of tacks indicates the picture plane was not cropped significantly. Today, the bottom corner of the proper left tacking margin is loose and in need of repair. Remnants of discolored varnish in the interstices of the brushstrokes cover the light gray ground (Fig. 13) and likely affect how the viewer perceives the overall palette from normal viewing distance. The painting is currently coated in a thin layer of mastic that was applied in 2004.¹⁰Scott A. Heffley, treatment report, November 5, 2004, NAMA conservation file, no. 75-6.

Notes

1. Anthea Callen, The Art of Impressionism: Painting Technique and the Making of Modernity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 33.

2. Iris Schaefer, Caroline von Saint-George, and Katja Lewerentz, Painting Light: The Hidden Technique of the Impressionists (Milan: Skira, 2008), 51–52; Sandra Webber, “Colormen and Their Marks: A Survey of Nineteenth-Century European Paintings in the Clark Art Institute,” Art Conservator 9, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 19–22.

3. Another Sisley in the Nelson-Atkins collection, The Lock of Saint-Mammès (1885), also bears the oval “10w.” stamp oriented to match the painting’s horizontal format in the lower center of its crossbar. Its stretcher is a standard-size no. 10 paysage (55 x 38 cm), indicating that the marking is accurate in terms of the overall dimensions. Renoir’s Madame Léon Clapisson (1883; Art Institute of Chicago) has “25 w.” encircled in a black oval stamped on the crossbar. The painting measures 81.2 x 65.3 cm, which closely matches the standard-size no. 25 figure (81 x 65 cm). The marking corresponds to the vertical orientation of the portrait, but the entire stretcher was installed upside-down during a later treatment. Kelly Keegan, “Cat. 17. Madame Léon Clapisson, 1883: Technical Report,” in Renoir: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), fig. 17.17, https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135645. Renoir’s Fruits of the Midi (1881; Art Institute of Chicago) has “15 w.” encircled in a black oval stamped on the crossbar. The painting measures 50 x 64 cm, which closely matches standard-size no. 15 paysage (50 x 65 cm). The marking is upside-down relative to the horizontal orientation of the still life. Kelly Keegan, “Cat. 14. Fruits of the Midi, 1881: Technical Report,” in Renoir: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, fig. 14.11, https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/135642.

4. The canvas reverse is covered by the lining canvas, but no stamp was noted in transmitted light.

5. Lynn Roberts, Mark Mitchell, and Paul Mitchell, “Framing Impressionism,” London Art Week, virtual lecture, April 24, 2024, posted July 8, 2024, by London Art Week, YouTube, at 37:44–41:42, https://youtu.be/WtzP_q-SKJ4?si=HTLY-DO1DqfvgeER&t=2263. For further discussion of the Impressionists’ frames, see Schaefer, Von Saint-George, and Lewerentz, Painting Light, 179–82.

6. Schaefer, Von Saint-George, and Lewerentz, Painting Light, 200.

7. Since the lining was performed with a water-based glue, the process may have caused bubbles and disturbances in the water-soluble ground layer. Scattered dots of retouching along the warp and weft of the canvas may substantiate the theory that the pockmarks were caused by lining. Several Sisley paintings, including La Terrasse de Saint-Germain, Spring (1875; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore) and The Boulevard Héloïse, Argenteuil (1872; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), also underwent lining with a similar adhesive and incurred pinpoint losses in the colored ground layer along the tops of the canvas threads. Eric Gordon also recounts second-hand information about an unnamed painting in Hamburg with the same condition issues. See Eric Gordon, “Restoring Balance: Reintegrating a Damaged Sky in Alfred Sisley’s La Terrasse de Saint-Germain,” Journal of the Walters Art Museum 70/71 (2012): 126–28, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24412699.

8. Forrest Bailey, handwritten examination notes, 1976, NAMA conservation file, no. 75-6.

9. At the back, the first label that was placed on top of the lining dates from 1927 at the earliest. Thus, the lining was probably performed prior to 1927.

10. Scott A. Heffley, treatment report, November 5, 2004, NAMA conservation file, no. 75-6.

provenance

With Gaston-Alexandre Camentron, Paris, by February 23, 1892;

Purchased from Camentron by Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, stock no. 2021, as La berge à Bellancourt, 1892–July 1897 [1];

Transferred from Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, to Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, stock no. 1902, July 1897–March 16, 1927 [2];

Purchased from Durand-Ruel Galleries by Effie Seachrest, Kansas City, MO, 1927–no later than June 18, 1949 [3];

Purchased from Seachrest by Mr. William James (1875–1960) and Mrs. Mildred (née White, 1882–1975) Brace, Kansas City, MO, by 1949–March 31, 1975 [4];

Their bequest to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1975.

Notes

[1] See email from Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris, to Nicole Myers, NAMA, January 11, 2016, NAMA curatorial files. A handwritten inscription and paper label on the stretcher corroborate the stock number.

[2] See email from Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris, to Nicole Myers, NAMA, January 11, 2016, NAMA curatorial files. A handwritten inscription and paper label on the stretcher corroborate the stock number. See also the Durand-Ruel photo stock card, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Photo Archives, no. A184.

[3] See email from Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris, to Nicole Myers, NAMA, January 11, 2016, NAMA curatorial files. Effie Seachrest (1869–1952) was a Kansas City dealer and connoisseur of modern art who went on frequent scouting trips to New York and Europe. She organized exhibitions and hosted art appreciation classes at her home on Troostwood Road, known as the Little Gallery in the Woods. Seachrest sold The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow to William James and Mildred Brace sometime prior to June 18, 1949, when the Braces had the painting cleaned by Nelson-Atkins conservator James Roth; see Nelson-Atkins deposit receipt dated June 18, 1949, NAMA curatorial files. The precise date of sale is unknown, but extant correspondence confirms that Seachrest placed the painting in the Brace collection; see letter from Ralph T. Coe, NAMA, to Mildred Brace, June 9, 1966, NAMA archives. James Reuland, grandson of William James and Mildred Brace, believes his grandparents acquired The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow “well before” Seachrest’s passing in 1952. See email from James Reuland to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, March 23, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

[4] When Mildred Brace died on March 16, 1975, she bequeathed Sisley’s The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow to the Nelson-Atkins but stipulated that her daughter, Betty Jane Reuland (née Brace, 1916–2002), retain the work during her lifetime. Reuland displayed the painting at her home in Kansas City until her death on March 10, 2002, after which it was transferred to the Nelson-Atkins. See email from James Reuland, grandson of William James and Mildred Brace, to Brigid M. Boyle, NAMA, March 23, 2022.

Possibly Alfred Sisley, The Banks of the Seine in Winter, ca. 1879, oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in. (46 x 55 cm), private collection; cited in Sylvie Brame and François Lorenceau, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue critique des peintures et des pastels (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 2021), no. 380, p. 165.

exhibitions

Exposition Alfred Sisley, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 5–28, 1897, no. 7, as La Berge, à Billancourt, neige, 1879.

Exhibition: Paintings by Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, March 24–April 7, 1917, no. 1, as La berge à Billancourt.

Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley (1840–1899), Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, January 8–22, 1921, no. 12, as La berge à Billancourt.

Exhibition of Paintings by Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York, February 18–March 1925, no. 19, La berge à Billancourt.

Kansas City Collects: A Selection of Works of Art Privately Owned in the Greater Kansas City Area, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 22–February 28, 1965, no. 17, as The Embankment at Billancourt, Snow.

Homage to Effie Seachrest, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 25–October 9, 1966, no. 4, as The Embankment at Brillancourt [sic]—Snow.

Gli Impressionisti e la neve: La Francia e l’Europa, Palazzina della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin, Italy, November 27, 2004–April 25, 2005, no. 125, as L’argine a Billancourt, neve.

references

Exposition Alfred Sisley, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1897), 26 [repr., in Theodore Reff, ed., Modern Art in Paris: Two-Hundred Catalogues of the Major Exhibitions Reproduced in Facsimile in Forty-Seven Volumes, vol. 43, Exhibitions of Impressionist Art I (New York: Garland, 1981), unpaginated], as La Berge, à Billancourt, neige, 1879.

Exhibition: Paintings by Sisley (1840–1899), exh. cat. (New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1917), unpaginated, as La berge à Billancourt.

“Exhibitions Now On: Sisley at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 15, no. 25 (March 31, 1917): 2.

Exhibition of Paintings by Alfred Sisley (1840–1899), exh. cat. (New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1921), unpaginated, as La berge à Billancourt.

“Sisley at Durand-Ruel’s,” American Art News 19, no. 14 (January 15, 1921): 2, as Berge a [sic] Billancourt.

Exhibition of Paintings by Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, exh. cat. (New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1925), unpaginated, as La berge à Billancourt.

Possibly M[inna] K. P[owell], “In Gallery and Studio: News and Views of the Week in Art,” Kansas City Star 49, no. 131 (January 26, 1929): 6.

Possibly M[inna] K. P[owell], “In Gallery and Studio: News and Views of the Week in Art,” Kansas City Star 49, no. 145 (February 9, 1929): 6.

Possibly M[inna] K. P[owell], “Art: Centuries of Paintings at the Kansas City Art Institute Draw Large Crowd,” Kansas City Times 98, no. 6 (January 7, 1935): 13.

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Lausanne: Éditions Durand-Ruel, 1959), no. 347, pp. 345, 351, 358, (repro.), as La Berge à Billancourt en 1879—neige.

Kansas City Collects: A Selection of Works of Art Privately Owned in the Greater Kansas City Area, exh. cat. (Kansas City: Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, 1965), unpaginated, as The Embankment at Billancourt, Snow.

Ralph T. Coe, “Fine Art in Growing Private Collections Here,” Kansas City Times 97, no. 135 (February 11, 1965): 12D.

Homage to Effie Seachrest, exh. cat. ([Kansas City, MO]: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1966), 7, 13, 15, (repro.), as The Embankment at Brillancourt [sic]—Snow.

“Homage to Effie Seachrest,” Gallery Events (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) (July–August 1966): unpaginated.

“Recent Acquisitions,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 5, no. 3 (February 1976): 39, (repro.), as The Embankment at Billancourt—Snow.

MaryAnne Stevens, ed., Alfred Sisley, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1992), 53n105, 178, 279.

Charles S. Moffett et al., Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: Phillips Collection, 1998), 77n19.

Marco Goldin, Gli impressionisti e la neve: La Francia e l’Europa, exh. cat. (Conegliano, Italy: Linea d’ombra Libri, 2004), 295, 384, (repro.), as L’argine a Billancourt, neve.

Léonard Gianadda and Martha Degiacomi, Trésors impressionnistes: La Collection Ordrupgaard; Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Matisse . . ., exh. cat. (Geneva: Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 2019), 62, 62n1.

Sylvie Brame and François Lorenceau, Alfred Sisley: Catalogue critique des peintures et des pastels (Lausanne: La Bibliothèque des arts, 2021), no. 376, pp. 164, 450, 516–17, 519, 522, 550, (repro.), as La berge à Billancourt, temps de neige.