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Lot Essay
The present work, painted in 1892, depicts a view of the Loing river at Moret, a picturesque medieval town near the Forest of Fontainebleau where Sisley lived for much of the final two decades of his life. First moving to the town in 1882, he described the area enthusiastically to his friend Claude Monet: “Moret is just two hours journey from Paris, and has plenty of places to let at six hundred to a thousand francs. There is a market once a week, a pretty church, and beautiful scenery round about. If you were thinking of moving, why not come and see?” (quoted in Alfred Sisley, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1992, p. 184).
The same year the present work was painted, the artist wrote, “It is at Moret, in this thickly wooded countryside with its tall poplars, the waters of the river Loing here, so beautiful, so translucent, so changeable; at Moret my art has undoubtedly developed the most...I will never really leave this little place that is so picturesque” (quoted in R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 123).
During his time there, Sisley painted the Loing river and the town from every possible angle, shifting his position or simply adjusting his sight line to create a veritable map of the vicinity of the Moret in varying seasons and weather conditions. To paint the present canvas, Sisley set up his easel on the right bank of the Loing immediately upstream from Moret, at the very edge of the river. Here, the historic center of the town is visible in the distance. The Porte de Bourgogne, a twelfth-century gateway that stands at the western end of the span and marks the entrance to Moret itself, is silhouetted against the sky. Just in front of the façade are the stately arches of the bridge linking Moret with the road to Saint-Mammès—one of Sisley’s favored subject of the region. At the left edge of the composition is the Provencher watermill, which occupies the center of the Pont de Moret.
Lining the architecture, to the left of the Porte de Bourgogne is a series of tall trees rising above the rooftops, their height and verticality contrasting with the low, horizontal expanse of the cubic buildings. Behind, the sun sets in a dazzling array of blue, pink and yellow hues. The freshness of the dusk light complements the cool shadows that envelop the town, reminiscent of a breezy summer night by the river. Below the tree line and at the edge of the town, the fragmented reflections of the setting sun play across the light-dappled surface of the water.
Christopher Lloyd has written, "These paintings show him at the height of his powers. All the experience of the previous decades was blended in these canvases, which amount to the summation of his output: the paint is richly applied with the impasto more pronounced than in previous works, the brushwork more insistently rhythmical, the execution more rapid, and the colors more vibrant" (ibid., p. 25).
Moret-sur-Loing au soleil couchant was first exhibited in 1897 with the Galerie Georges Petit, who shortly thereafter sold the work during the artist’s Estate sale. It was acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1982, and has remained in their collection ever since.
The same year the present work was painted, the artist wrote, “It is at Moret, in this thickly wooded countryside with its tall poplars, the waters of the river Loing here, so beautiful, so translucent, so changeable; at Moret my art has undoubtedly developed the most...I will never really leave this little place that is so picturesque” (quoted in R. Shone, Sisley, London, 1992, p. 123).
During his time there, Sisley painted the Loing river and the town from every possible angle, shifting his position or simply adjusting his sight line to create a veritable map of the vicinity of the Moret in varying seasons and weather conditions. To paint the present canvas, Sisley set up his easel on the right bank of the Loing immediately upstream from Moret, at the very edge of the river. Here, the historic center of the town is visible in the distance. The Porte de Bourgogne, a twelfth-century gateway that stands at the western end of the span and marks the entrance to Moret itself, is silhouetted against the sky. Just in front of the façade are the stately arches of the bridge linking Moret with the road to Saint-Mammès—one of Sisley’s favored subject of the region. At the left edge of the composition is the Provencher watermill, which occupies the center of the Pont de Moret.
Lining the architecture, to the left of the Porte de Bourgogne is a series of tall trees rising above the rooftops, their height and verticality contrasting with the low, horizontal expanse of the cubic buildings. Behind, the sun sets in a dazzling array of blue, pink and yellow hues. The freshness of the dusk light complements the cool shadows that envelop the town, reminiscent of a breezy summer night by the river. Below the tree line and at the edge of the town, the fragmented reflections of the setting sun play across the light-dappled surface of the water.
Christopher Lloyd has written, "These paintings show him at the height of his powers. All the experience of the previous decades was blended in these canvases, which amount to the summation of his output: the paint is richly applied with the impasto more pronounced than in previous works, the brushwork more insistently rhythmical, the execution more rapid, and the colors more vibrant" (ibid., p. 25).
Moret-sur-Loing au soleil couchant was first exhibited in 1897 with the Galerie Georges Petit, who shortly thereafter sold the work during the artist’s Estate sale. It was acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty in 1982, and has remained in their collection ever since.