Provenance
From the artist 28 January 1881 to (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 19 July 1892 to Henri Vever [1854-1942]; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-2 February 1897, no. 105); purchased by (Durand-Ruel, New York and Paris); sold 4 February 1897 to François Depeaux [1853-1920], Rouen. Adolphe A. Tavernier, Paris; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 6 March 1900, no. 71); purchased by Mancini, Paris. Charles L. de Hèle, Brussels; (Hèle sale, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, 13 June 1911, no. 12).[1] Louis Koch [1862-1930], Frankfurt.[2] Robert von Hirsch [1883-1977, second husband of Koch's daughter, Martha Koch Dreyfus], Basel, in 1957 until at least 1959.[3] Koch's grand-daughter and Von Hirsch's step-daughter, Lili-Charlotte Sarnoff [1916-2014], Bethesda, Maryland; gift (partial and promised) 1983 to NGA; gift completed 2015.
[1] Provenance according to François Daulte, _Alfred Sisley: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint_, Paris, 1959: no. 279.
[2] Sarnoff collection records, in NGA curatorial files. Koch's name is not included in Daulte's catalogue raisonné.
[3] Von Hirsch lent the painting to a 1957 exhibition in Basel; Daulte 1959, no. 279.
Accession Number
1983.98.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 49.2 x 65.2 cm (19 3/8 x 25 11/16 in.) | framed: 69.2 x 86.4 x 7.6 cm (27 1/4 x 34 x 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Donated by Lolo Sarnoff in memory of her grandfather, Louis Koch
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Alfred Sisley's First Snow at Veneux-Nadon (1878) captures the transformative moment when the first snowfall changes a familiar landscape into something strange and luminous. Sisley, the most consistently landscape-focused of the Impressionists, painted this work during the period when he had settled in the villages along the Seine and Loing rivers southeast of Paris. The choice of first snow as subject reveals Sisley's particular gift: his ability to find profound visual interest in transitional atmospheric conditions. Unlike Monet, who sought dramatic effects and radical chromatic experiments, Sisley pursued subtlety—the way snow dampens and simultaneously brightens a landscape, creating a luminous gray palette of extraordinary refinement. Veneux-Nadon was near Moret-sur-Loing, where Sisley would spend his final decades; the region's mix of river, canal, forest, and agricultural land provided subjects he painted with patient devotion. The year 1878 finds Sisley in reduced circumstances: the Impressionist group was dispersing, dealer support was unreliable, and Sisley—the only Impressionist who never achieved financial security in his lifetime—was struggling to support his family through painting. Yet no economic anxiety disturbs the painting's serene surface; Sisley's commitment to his artistic vision remained absolute regardless of his material circumstances.
Cultural Impact
Sisley's snow scenes influenced the tradition of winter landscape painting in France and beyond, establishing a chromatic approach to snow that influenced Pissarro's snow paintings and later Japanese and Scandinavian Impressionist painters. His treatment of snow as luminous rather than merely white influenced how winter light was understood and represented in art. The Veneux-Nadon paintings also influenced tourism and regional identity in the Seine-et-Marne area, contributing to the cultural recognition of the Loing Valley as a landscape of artistic significance.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it demonstrates Sisley's particular form of artistic integrity: an unwavering commitment to landscape painting at a level of subtlety that the art market often overlooked. While Monet became a celebrity and Renoir a society painter, Sisley pursued his modest vision without deviation. First Snow at Veneux-Nadon rewards the attentive viewer with chromatic refinements that flashier works overshadow—a reminder that artistic value does not always announce itself loudly.
