Street in Moret

Down in the bottom left corner sits the signature of Alfred Sisley, one of the gentler souls among the Impressionists. The painting takes us to Moret-sur-Loing, a modest French town near Fontainebleau where Sisley spent his final years. He returned to these same streets and rooftops over and over, discovering fresh beauty in ordinary places that most folks would pass by without a second thought. A wide sandy road opens up before us, sprinkled with townspeople going about their errands, while solid houses with warm red roofs stand along the way beneath a hazy, shifting sky.

Weather and clouds fascinated Sisley more than almost any other subject, and that love shows in the quick, dabbing brushwork that makes the sky feel alive and moving. A quiet steadiness runs through the whole scene, with cool blues playing nicely against the earthy browns of the road. Sadly, Sisley never enjoyed the fame or fortune that came to friends like Monet and Renoir, and he died with little money just a few years after finishing this work. His story is a quiet reminder that recognition sometimes arrives too late for the artist to ever know it.