Explore the Production of this artwork, The Canal du Loing (painting).
It was produced after Sisley settled in Moret-sur-Loing for good. The town was criss-crossed by several watercourses, notably the picturesque river Loing, the left tributary of the Seine. The Canal du Loing is no longer bordered by trees as shown. Sisley commented to Adolphe Tavernier the same year as painting the work "the sky cannot just be a background [...] I focus on this part of the landscape, because I want to make you understand the importance I attach to it [...] I always begin a canvas with the sky".Gustave Geffroy described another painting of the same subject by Sisley: "I paint a winter day, frosty and sunny. The ground, the sky, the canal, the fine skeleton of the trees, all is mauve, phasing towards pink, the air is gilded. Three parallel roads, developed in depth, lead to a distant background lined with poplars. Beside the metallic water meander a dark man and a clear horse, both tiny next to the sparkling hedge, burning with colour. The atmosphere is so pure that if the dark man uttered a cry, the three ways and the canal would carry the echo to the vaults of the world."
Loing Seine Gustave Geffroy Adolphe Tavernier Moret-sur-Loing