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The English Impressionist

by Peter Wyton

Alfred Sisley, 1839 – 1899

He sought out scenery, a prospector
Panning perspective in his quest for gold,
Sunshine on shutters in a village square,
The liquid treasure of the Seine. He filled
His canvasses with trees, tenuous trunks
Rigid as spear shafts along rutted roads,
Or standing sentinel on river banks.
A non-bohemian, neglecting nudes,
He lusted after landscapes, read the runes
Of  harmonising tones in shade and light
On snow or farmyard wall at Louveciennes.
Yet, in a cruel-seeming twist of fate,
Wealth evaded him. Dealers only paid
High prices for his work once he was dead.


Peter Wyton once competed in a St. Valentine’s Day poetry Slam and won — not the competition — but a packet of Love Hearts.

Chemin de la Machine Louveciennes by Alfred Sisley
Published 29 March 2011