The Flood at Port Marly

In the late winter of 1876 the Seine broke its banks at Port-Marly, a village just downstream of Paris, and ran up into the streets. Sisley was living nearby, and he went out into it. Over the following weeks he painted the same flooded corner seven times, following the water as it rose, held, and finally drained back, almost like a reporter recording the stages of an event. This is the rue de Paris, with the river hidden behind a double line of trees on the right, the pavement already gone under, the sky above it torn and moving. What strikes you is how calm he makes a disaster look. There is no panic in it, only a wide wet street, a few small figures, and grey water holding the reflection of a restless sky. He had painted floods on this exact spot once before, back in 1872.