Brown-bearded man leaning on the back of a bamboo chair, his hand against his cheek and his eyes lowered

Alfred Sisley

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What you see

Alfred Sisley sits backward on a chair, his arm draped over the bamboo back and his cheek resting on one hand. He looks down and to the side, lost in thought. His bearded head fills the upper part of the picture, while the yellow chair back runs across the bottom.

His jacket is nearly black with glints of blue, broken only by the white cuffs. The background splits in two: dark green on the left and a pale wall on the right, blue-green and yellow, brushed in loose touches. Notice the gold cufflink at his wrist and the knobby joints of the bamboo chair.

About Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir began by painting flowers on porcelain plates and became one of the great Impressionists. He loved to paint happiness: dances, outdoor meals, children and friends in light filtering through the trees. He kept painting into old age, even when he had to have the brush tied to his hand.

All 11 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir