Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired from the artist on 28th September 1885)
Bruno Cassirer, Berlin (acquired from the above on 9th March 1927)
Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Fritz Alexander Bernstein, Berlin & Paris
Christian Brun, Vichy (circa 1970-71)
Sam Salz, Paris & New York (acquired from the above through Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1971)
Acquired from the aꦚbove by a relative of the present owner in the 1970s

(possibly) Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Exposition de tableaux par Sisley (1839-1899), 1922, no. 38 (with incorrect provenance)
Palm Springs, Palm Springs Desert Museum, French Impressionist Paintings from the Collection of Ralph and Lois Stone, 1990

François Daulte, Alfred Sisley, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1959, no. 604, illustrated n.p.

The canvas is lined. There is a 10 by 1.5cm. area of retouching running from the upper right corner to the centre of the right edge. There are further intermittent areas of retouching running at intervals down to the bottom right corner, a further 4 by 4cm. area of scattered spots of retouching to the right side of the lake and a 1 by 1cm. area of retouching to the horizon to the right of the house. There are further scattered spots of retouching to the right side of the upper edge. All retouching is visible under UV light. Apart from some areas of retouching running from the upper left corner to the centre of the left edge, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Bateaux en réparation à Saint-Mammès, completed in 1885, was painted in the port of Saint-Mammès, where the rivers Seine and Loing converge. Sisley spent much of his time here in the first half of the 1880s, painting several canvꦅases of the riverbanks, working quays an😼d barges. 

One can easily recognise the paintings of 1885 by the presence of both the mansard-roofed customs house and the boats as seen from the banks of the Loing river. In this painting, Sisley renders the effects of light by bringing the foreground sharply into focus. He adds layers of richly saturated pigment to the boat, and softens the surrounding landscape with smoother strokes of more muted colours. The artist once explained that '[t]hese effects of light, which have an almost material expression in nature, must be rendered in material fashion on the canvas' (Christopher Lloyd, 'Alfred Sisley and the Purity of Vision,' in Alfred Sisley, London, 1992, p. 10). 

The present work exemplifies Sisley's skill as a landscapist toward the end of his official collaboration with the original Impressionist group.  Although his work was appreciated when he actively exhibited with the Impressionists in Paris in the 1870s and 1880s, it was only posthumously that Sisley was recognised as one of the great landscapists among them. As Gustave Geoffroy wrote, 'On the day when Sisley's death was announced... a tremor ran through the public... The paintings suddenly gained a new prestige... The order of precedence began to fall into place.  Alfred Sisley took his rightful place in the glorious lineage of landscape painters... Any museum and any gallery that now claims to tell the story of the great art of our century would tell that story incompletely if it were not to present...the gentle, delicate, luminous, shimmering paintings that mark the evolution of Alfred Sisley's talent' (quoted in: Sylvie Patin, "Veneux-Nadon and Moret-sur-Loing: 1880-1899" in Alfred Sisley, London, 1992, p. 186).

This painting is sold in co-operation with the heirs of Fri𝔉tz Alexander Bernstein.