La rade de Cardiff 1897

Alfred Sisley, a French artist, painted "La rade de Cardiff" with oil on canvas, capturing a scene of Cardiff Docks. Sisley, though British by parentage, chose to depict industrial landscapes such as this from the perspective of a French Impressionist, contrasting with the Barbizon school's rural focus. The late 19th century in Europe was a time of massive industrial growth, and Cardiff, Wales, became one of the world’s largest coal exporters. In "La rade de Cardiff", Sisley’s light brushstrokes soften the bustling docks, integrating the rapidly changing urban environment into a harmonious scene of daily life. Sisley’s choice to paint en plein air captured the fleeting atmospheric conditions, and can be compared with the kind of industrial landscape found in photographs and trade publications of the time. Investigating the social context in which Sisley painted can give us a sharper idea of how landscape painting participated in the visual culture of industrializing nations.