Alfred Sisley

Painted in 1883, the present composition depicts the landscape around Saint-Mammès, a small village situated at the confluence of the rivers Seine and Loing, just north of Moret-sur-Loing. Sisley first moved with his family to Veneux-Nadon near Moret-sur-Loing in 1880, and continued to live in the area for the rest of his life, moving several times between the two villages. 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. Having painted numerous views of the bridge, river bank and quayside of Saint-Mammès in 1880-81, Sisley focused his attention on the Loing at Saint-Mammès, and between 1882 and 1885 executed a series of works depicting the water in different seasons and times of day.

For Le Loing à Saint-Mammès, Sisley set his easel across the river from Saint-Mammès, giving him a receding view of the river and the houses lining up the bank. The composition evokes an atmosphere of calm and serenity, with small red-roof buildings lining one river bank, and trees and boats the other. The major part of the canvas, however, is occupied by the richly painted sky and its reflection in the wide expanse of the river below. In her discussion of Sisley's paintings executed in this region, Vivienne Couldrey noted: 'It is an essentially Impressionist place with the gentle light of the Ile de France, the soft colours and the constantly changing skies of northern France. There are green woods and pastures, curving tree-lined banks of rivers, canals and narrow streams, wide stretches of the river where the Loing joins the Seine at Saint-Mammès, old stone houses, churches and bridges' (V. Couldrey, Alfred Sisley, The English Impressionist, Exeter, 1992, p. 68).