The Banks of the Loing towards Moret

By 1883 Alfred Sisley had settled his family near Moret-sur-Loing, a small town southeast of Paris where the river Loing runs down to join the Seine. He would stay in this one corner for the rest of his life and paint little else. It can look like pure countryside, but the Loing here was a working river, half canalised, carrying barges between towns, and Sisley lets that into the view: the tall trees and their reflections share the water with working craft and, off in the distance, pale chalk cliffs. British by nationality though he spent almost his whole life in France, he painted alongside Monet and Renoir and sold very little. Recognition and rising prices came only after he died at Moret in 1899. This bend of the Loing is what he kept in front of him, year after year.