Sisley an impressionist was born in Paris of English parents. After his schooldays, his father, a merchant trading with the southern states of America, sent him to London for a business career, but finding this unpalatable, Sisley returned to Paris in 1862 with the aim of becoming an artist. His family gave him every support, sending him to Gleyre's studio, where he met Renoir, Monet and Bazille. He spent some time painting in Fontainebleau, at Chailly with Monet, Bazille and Renoir, and later at Marlotte with Renoir. His style at this time was deeply influenced by Courbet and Daubigny, and when he first exhibited at the Salon in 1867 it was as the pupuil of Corot.
 

The acceptance of two of his paintings by the Salon in 1870 marked the final occasion on which Sisley exhibited there. After the Franco-Prussian War destroyed his father's business and caused the older gentleman's eventual death, Sisley was forced to depend upon sales of his canvases to support his family-.' From his home in Louveciennes, where he moved in 1872, the artist traveled to nearby Argenteuil, Bougival, and Port-Marly, as evidenced by his paintings from this time. Also during the early 1870s he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who featured works by Sisley in an 1872 exhibition in his London gallery.
 

In 1883 the Durand-Ruel gallery held Sisley's first one-person exhibition. By the middle of the decade, however, both critics and colleagues were growing dissatisfied with Sisley's paintings.' He continued to exhibit with the Impressionists, but like a number of the original members of the group, he did not participate in their final exhibition of 1886. Later in the decade, hoping to improve his financial situation as well as his reputation, Sisley began working in pastel, a medium popular with the public. Around this time he also focused on creating series of specific scenes with slight variations in time of day, light, weather, and season.

 

Sisley and Eugénie Lesouezec visited Wales in 1897 at the suggestion of one of his patrons with business interests there. The couple, who were both suffering from cancer, spent July to September in Penarth, near Cardiff, and spent their honeymoon at Langland Bay on the Gower Peninsula. On 5 August they married in Cardiff Register Office, although by this time their health was declining. In 1898 Sisley's application for French citizenship was rejected. A second attempt was made the following year, but by then he was terminally ill. He died in Moret-sur-Loing on 29 January 1899 at the age of 59, just a few months after the death of his wife.

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