I n 1880, Alfred Sisley and his family relocated from the outskirts of bustling Paris to the rural Veneux-Nadon, an area in the French region of Moret. The local scenery offered a constant source of inspiration to the artist, who tried to capture the relationship between land, water and sky as well as the changing effects of light on his surroundings.

Throughout the following decade, Sisley adapted his palette choice, brush stroke technique and subject matter, discovering that the use of color and varied paint application could evoke a certain mood or atmosphere. He was fascinated with light, focusing on the way light could play-shimmering, or creating shadows and reflections.

In the present work, he uses sparse strokes of paint to capture the wind-swept plain looking toward Sablons. He renders the figures in the foreground with an incredible economy of pigment, imparting a fleeting sense of time and environment.