In the autumn of 1883, Sisley settled in Saint-Mammès, a small village close to the junction of the Canal du Loing and the Seine, near the edge of the Fontainebleau forest, about twenty miles southeast of Paris. For about ten years these scenes remained his chief inspiration and there are at least sixty recorded landscapes done in this locale.

In the Paris-Journal of March 7, 1882, the critic E. Chesneau admired Sisley's current work with words that could easily be applied directly to Saint-Mammès-La-Croix-Blanche:

Sisley has masterfully taken possession of the banks
and waters of the Seine where the breeze, like a moving
mirror, splinters into a thousand pieces the gold autumn
leaves and scatters the opal reflections of light, fleecy
clouds.... (E. Chesneau, op. cit.)

Many have long considered Sisley's forte to have been his skills at depicting the play of light on bodies of water, especially on calmly flowing river currents. This stately work, while typical of many of this period, stands out in the strength of its composition: the soaring avenue of trees in the center emphasizes the diminishing perspective of the Canal du Loing at the left.