Provencher Watermill at Moret

In June 1883 Paul Durand-Ruel gave Sisley a one-man exhibition at his new gallery on the boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris. It was one of a run of solo shows the dealer put on that year, one painter at a time, for Boudin, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley. Hanging a single living artist that way was close to a new invention in the picture trade. Sisley had settled beside Moret-sur-Loing the previous September, in the country south-east of Paris where the Loing runs down to meet the Seine, and the Provencher mill was one of the working watermills on that river. He painted it outdoors in front of the motif. The women washing clothes on the bank are laid in as a few touches of colour, about as detailed as the reflections on the water.