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Lot Essay
In the early 1880s Sisley began to frequent the vicinity around Moret-sur-Loing, a small town about twenty-five miles southeast of Paris, and in 1889 he settled there. The artist was immediately enamored with the area and frequently portrayed the foot paths through woods and thickets which surrounded his new home. Nevertheless, however absorbed he was by the natural landscape, he rarely overlooked the presence of people casually going about their daily lives. In contrast to an artist like Monet, for whom the pure and untrammelled state of nature held far greater mystery and attraction, Sisley sought and expressed an easy and untroubled balance between rural life and nature. G. Geffroy wrote:
He sought to express the harmonies that prevail, in all weather and at every time of day, between foliage, water and sky; and he succeeded... He loved river banks; the fringes of woodlands; towns and villages glimpsed through the trees; old buildings swamped in greenery; winter morning sunlight; summer afternoons. He had a delicate way of conveying the effects of the moment (G. Geffroy, "Sisley", Les Cahiers d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1923).
He sought to express the harmonies that prevail, in all weather and at every time of day, between foliage, water and sky; and he succeeded... He loved river banks; the fringes of woodlands; towns and villages glimpsed through the trees; old buildings swamped in greenery; winter morning sunlight; summer afternoons. He had a delicate way of conveying the effects of the moment (G. Geffroy, "Sisley", Les Cahiers d'Aujourd'hui, Paris, 1923).