Alfred sisley et la crise de la representation

Alfred sisley and the crisis of representation

• Auteur / Autrice : JOHN DAMIEN THORNER
• Direction : Henri Quéré
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Études anglaises
• Date : Soutenance en 1992
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Sisley, Alfred (1839-1899)

Résumé

La these entreprend une analyse de la contradiction inherente dans la representation impressionniste : a savoir, que tout en etant le sommet du processus qui menait le symbole pictural a etre de plus en plus proche des apparences, l'impressionnisme marqua le debut d'un processus regressif, qui declencha le retour vers une peinture ''neo-medievale'' (le tableau considere comme surface decoree plutot que fidele representation du reel. ) on assiste - avec claude monet - a un retour a un mode de representation associe a l'art medieval : beaute lineaire, beaute decorative, ordre intellectuel, symbolisme, couleurs vives, simplification, harmonie. On remarque l'absence quasi-totale du nom de sisley dans toute discussion de l'avant-garde impressionniste. En essayant de cerner ce tournant vital dans l'art du dix-neuvieme siecle, la these examine tout particulierement le role d'alfred sisley, pour sonder les tensions de l'epoque. Sisley semblerait avoir ete un conservateur au sein d'un mouvement avant-gardiste : il resistait aux innovations de claude monet, a la dissolution de l'objet, restant fidele a la tradition de constable et de daubigny, qui voulait reconcilier la lumiere et la solidite plutot que de privilegier l7une ou l7autre. La these essaie de presenter ces trois peintres - constable, daubigny, sisley - comme le point culminant de l'art de la renaissance. Cette hypothese, que sisley fut un ''resistant'', sert comme point de depart a une etude qui veut a la fois mieux comprendre sisley et mieux comprendre l'effrondrement de l'art representationnel au vingtieme siecle.

The thesis attempts to analyse the self-contradictory nature of the impressionist programme : the fact that impressionism was the summit of the process that led the pictorial symbol to be matched ever more closely with appearance, and also the beginning of a regressive art that initiated a return to ''neo-medieval'' painting (the picture considered as a decorated surface, rather than as a faithful representation of reality). With claude monet we witness a retur to a mode of representation associated with medieval art : linear beauty, decorative beauty, intellectual order, symbolism, bright colours, simplification, and harmony. The name of sisley is conspicuously absent from any discussion of the impressionist avant-garde. In trying to define this vital turning-point in nineteenth-century art, the thesis pays particular attention to the role of alfred sisley and tries to probe into the tensions of the period. Sisley would seem to have been a conservative in the midst of an avant-garde movement : he resisted the innovations made by monet, who dissolved the painted object into vibrant air. Sisley remained faithful to the tradition established by constable and daubigny, a tradition that tried to reconcile light and solidity rather than allow one or the other to dominate. The thesis attempts to present these three painters - constable, daubigny, and sisley - as the apotheosis of renaissance art. The hypothesis that sisley was a ''resistant'' - provides the starting-point for a study which tries to deepen both our understanding of sisley and our understanding of why representational art collapsed in the twentieth century.