Painted near the picturesque town of Moret, Cabanes au bord du canal Loing, effet de soleil combines the artist's favorite subjects: the beautiful nature of the river and makeshift architecture one finds along its banks. In the last decade of his life, the tranquil setting inspired some of Sisley’s most elegant compositions. Sisley was fascinated by the river Loing and painted its multi-arched bridge lined with mills from several viewpoints. In the present work he captures the shifting effect of sunlight and shadows on a bright summer day in a delicate range of peach, blue, green and purple tones.

Richard Shone discussed the appeal of the town and its immediate surroundings: "The fame of Moret rested not so much on what was found inside the town but on the view it presented from across the Loing. Old flour and tanning mills clustered along the bridge; the river, scattered with tiny islands, seemed more like a moat protecting the houses and terraced gardens that, on either side the sturdy Porte de Bourgogne, in turn defended the pinnacled tower of the church. Add to this the tree-lined walks along the river, the continuous sound of water from the weir and the great wheels of the mills, the houseboats and fishermen, and there was, as every guidebook exclaimed, 'a captivating picture', a sight 'worthy of the brush.' These supremely picturesque aspects of Moret left Sisley unabashed. Gathered in one spot were the motifs that had mesmerized him since he began to paint. Here were water, sky, reflections, a busy riverside; the multi-arched bridge was for the artist the last in a long line of such structures going back through Sèvres and St-Cloud and Hampton Court to Argenteuil and Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Here was that conjunction of man-made and natural, the interleaving of foliage and house fronts between sky and water" (Richard Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 159).