L'œuvre en bref

This double portrait depicts the painter Alfred Sisley alongside his companion Eugénie Lescouezec. Sisley was one of Auguste Renoir's closest friends, whom he had met at the Gleyre studio alongside Claude Monet and Frédéric Bazille. This early work predates the official advent of Impressionism and bears witness to Renoir's still realist style, marked by the influence of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet.

The couple is shown full-length in a rural setting, in a pose charged with tenderness: Sisley leans affectionately toward Eugénie, who rests against him, their hands intertwined. The young woman wears a striking dress with yellow and red stripes, trimmed with ivory flounces, the meticulous handling of which constitutes the bravura piece of the canvas. Sisley, in a dark frock coat and white waistcoat, contrasts elegantly with the colourful silhouette of his companion. The foliage in the background, rendered in broader, freer green strokes, already foreshadows the attention Renoir would later pay to effects of natural light. This rich palette and the precision in the rendering of the fabrics still reveal the classical heritage, shortly before the pictorial revolution that would transform the painter's work.

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