Lot Essay
In the 1870s Sisley discovered the barge port of Billancourt which was situated on the right bank of the river Seine on the south west side of Paris, opposite the Parc de Saint-Cloud. On the other side lay the Port de Grenelle, a small industrial development which daily saw the loading and unloading of barges and a broad, largely unpopulated river bank. Here Sisley discovered an ideal Impressionist setting with the bustle of late nineteenth-century industry, the romance of the riverside and large, dramatic skies reflected in the water.
He painted two notable views from the same point on the bank, the present picture and its sister piece now housed in the Denver Art Museum (fig. 1). Like Monet, in the late 1870s Sisley became interested in capturing the same view in different light conditions and at various times of the day. He took this concept a stage further in the 1880s with his many views on the banks of the Seine at Saint-Mammès.
He painted two notable views from the same point on the bank, the present picture and its sister piece now housed in the Denver Art Museum (fig. 1). Like Monet, in the late 1870s Sisley became interested in capturing the same view in different light conditions and at various times of the day. He took this concept a stage further in the 1880s with his many views on the banks of the Seine at Saint-Mammès.