Street in Veneux 1883

Alfred Sisley painted ‘Street in Veneux’ with oil on canvas, a very traditional medium for painting at the time. But even with a traditional medium, he captured an industrializing world. Sisley’s short, broken brushstrokes capture the transience of light and the atmosphere. The loose application of paint gives a sense of immediacy, as if the scene were captured in a fleeting moment. The buildings and street are rendered with a tangible texture, evoking the roughness of stone and plaster. These materials remind us of the construction trades that built the town of Veneux. The workers themselves are absent, except for a figure and a cart in the distance, maybe bringing goods to market. The labor of these workers, who lived in a world increasingly dominated by industry and commerce, is the real subject of the painting. Sisley elevates the everyday lives of the working class to a subject worthy of artistic representation. It reminds us that art can find beauty and meaning in the most humble of circumstances.