The Outskirts of the Fontainebleau Forest

The forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, had already made a generation of painters famous before Sisley got here. In the 1830s and 40s the Barbizon artists had walked out under these same oaks to paint trees and clearings straight from nature, which at the time was a fairly radical thing to do. By 1885 Sisley had settled nearby, at Moret-sur-Loing, and he painted the edge of the woods in the lighter Impressionist manner the Barbizon men had helped make possible, quick touches of colour on leaves and grass. He was chronically short of money by then and would stay in this quiet corner for the rest of his life, painting the same fields, river and trees again and again.