Strada a Marly

Between 1875 and 1877 Sisley lived at Marly-le-Roi, a small town about 20 kilometers west of Paris, and he painted almost nothing but its streets, gardens, and floods. This is the market place, a plain provincial square under a restless sky, worked up in quick strokes of blue, white, and yellow. The road zigzags in and pulls your eye through the space. These were hard years for him. His father's business had collapsed in the war, the family money was gone, and he leaned on the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who once owned this very canvas. The museum in Mannheim bought it in 1913.