Lot Essay
Sisley moved to Svres from Marly-le-Roi in autumn of 1877. His years at Svres mark a crucial stage in his development. As Richard Shone notes: "Sisley seems to have felt an urgent need for a change in his surroundings to allow for the developments in his painting . . . In the years at Svres the surface handling of his work had become particularly complicated and he had begun to concentrate more exclusively on one motif, notably the series of the bridge at Svres" (R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 123).