L'Abreuvoir de Marly, gelée blanche

The little pond in this winter scene has a grand past. It was once part of the water gardens of Marly, the country retreat Louis XIV built west of Versailles to escape the crowds of his own court. The chateau and its cascades were pulled down after the Revolution, and by the 1870s this watering trough for horses was about all that remained of them. Sisley lived right beside it, on a street named for the abreuvoir, from 1875 to 1877, and painted it close to 20 times in changing weather. Here he caught it under hoarfrost, the whole surface dusted pale, the low winter sun barely warming the frozen ground.