Saint-Mammès, Loing Canal

Along the banks of the Loing Canal at Saint-Mammès, a handful of wooden boats sit pulled up on the shore while a couple of small figures pass the time nearby. Alfred Sisley painted this peaceful riverside in 1885, during the years he spent in this little French town where the Loing flows into the Seine. A friend and fellow traveler of Monet and Renoir, Sisley was one of the founding Impressionists, and he shared their fascination with shifting light. His real passion, though, was for water and open sky, and here the soft, drifting clouds fill nearly half the canvas.

Of all the Impressionists, Sisley stuck most faithfully to the landscape. He rarely painted anything else, choosing instead to return to the same rivers, fields, and quiet villages to watch how they shifted with the weather and seasons. Saint-Mammès became a favorite haunt in the 1880s. His story has a sad turn, though. Money was always tight, and he died in near poverty in 1899, right before collectors began to prize his work.

The surface is built up from short, feathery dabs of color that give a gentle shimmer to the grass, the water, and the hazy air. Nothing here shouts for attention. This is a modest, honest scene, carrying the quiet warmth that made Sisley such a fine painter of the everyday French countryside.