The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand

Sisley moved out to Marly-le-Roi, west of Paris, in 1875, and painted the working river there again and again. This stretch at Port-Marly was less picturesque than busy: men dredged sand from the Seine and heaped it on the bank in the pale mounds that give the picture its name, keeping the channel clear for the barges that carried goods into the city. It was a lean year for him. The Impressionists had held an auction that spring and the prices were humiliating, and Sisley would spend the rest of his life short of money. Yet the painting is calm and unhurried, all soft grey water and moving cloud. A year later this same low bank would be under water, when the Seine flooded and gave him his best-known series.