Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), Printemps à Veneux-Nadon

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
Printemps à Veneux-Nadon
signed 'Sisley.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
17 1/8 x 24 1/8 in. (43.4 x 61.2 cm.)
Painted in 1882

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Pre-Lot Text
Property from the Collection of Elizabeth Stafford
In the late 1960’s, we were on a plane and I got to sit next to my father.
He would relax when he knew he was headed for a vacation with his family. The stress of work in the days before the easy access to 24-hour news and stock apps on your phone, would get to him. But now he was all ours. We could talk, walk holding hands, play, hang by the beach with him.
But on a family trip, relaxation also made him quite a philosopher. So, on the plane, he asked each of us—my two teenaged brothers and myself—what would we do if we had $1000.
My older brother said he would invest it. He would buy IBM stocks. But maybe he would indulge a bit and take some of that money to buy another magnetic tape recorder machine, better than the one he was presently schlepping to record sounds of our trip. Yes, sounds. That was a thing then. He later became a banker and then an entrepreneur in the solar panel business.
My middle brother thought for a long time. He finally stated that he would buy a farm so he could grow vegetables and fruits. Everybody could use veggies and fruits, he reasoned. He could sell them or even give them away if he had too much. He later became a dessert chef and then a public school special aid teacher.
Finally, my turn came. I couldn’t wait! I flatly told my father I would exchange the $1000 for the “white Monet” hanging in his room. He chuckled, surprised.
“Why a painting,” he asked?
“I like it. It’s pretty. I can feel the snow.”
Well, we forgot to take him up on that offer. Luckily, that painting and others surrounded us as we grew up. From the walls of our parents’ home to the walls of museums, they made us, and the public that saw them, appreciate the artists that created the beauty in each stroke, the atmosphere they conveyed, the thoughts they conjured in our minds: the foggy cold in Effet de neige à Giverny; the budding shyness of Spring in Veneux-Nadon; the lush, hot colors on Giverny rooftops; the dusty grandeur of the Tuileries gardens in the afternoon, as well as the crispy, cold, barren Fall at Eragny.
This is what art gives you. That is what you never forget.
E. Alexandra Stafford