MADRID, SPAIN.- The Thyssen Museum presents "Sisley - Poet of Impressionism," on view through September 15, 2002. Alfred Sisley is perhaps one of the least known of the Impressionist painters. His modest character, which focused more on hispainting than on its public exhibition, and his relatively early death which happened just as Impressionism was beginning to receive widespread popular recognition, may have been the reason why he was relatively little known, even though in his own time a number of critics considered him the most poetic of the Impressionists. Although Sisley’s importance within the movement was already recognized in John Rewald’s writings, it was from 1959, specifically with the publication of Francois Daulte’s catalogue raisonné, that Alfred Sisley found his true place in the history of modern painting.

Sisley was born in Paris on October 30 1839 of British parents living inFrance. He began his artistic studies following a trip to England where he was sent to learn the family business (import of luxury goods) and perfect his knowledge of the language.