Sisley in Wales: Fighting to the End

A drama documentary which was made in connection with the exhibition of Sisley's works at the National Gallery in London in 2008. Alfred Sisley is the only major impressionist artist to work in Wales, spending July to September 1897 in Penarth, near Cardiff, and at Langland Bay on the Gower Peninsula. His paintings of South Wales are his only seascapes; they recall the atmospheric views of the Breton coast painted a few years before by the artist's friend Claude Monet. The Langland Bay paintings comprise views along the beach at Lady's Cove (now called Rotherslade Bay) and of Storr's Rock. Sisley was fascinated by the enormous, isolated outcrop of rocks close to the Osborne Hotel, where he stayed, and made five paintings depicting Storr Rock at different times of day and in varying weather conditions. An integral member of the evolving impressionist movement, he remained true to the style throughout his life. In 1897, he and his long-term partner Eugenie Lescouzec visited Britain at the suggestion of one of his patrons who had business interests in South Wales, and were married in Cardiff during his stay in Penarth. The visit to Langland Bay was their honeymoon, though both were in declining health. In 1899, Sisley died in Moret-sur-Loing at the age of 59, just a few months after the death of his wife.