In Sisley's time, the towns of the Seine-et-Marne region were bustling with local commerce: barges on the canal, a flour and tanning mill at Moret, boatyards around Saint-Mammès, and orchards, gardens, and farms at Les Sablons. Sisley visited the area late in 1879, seeking an inexpensive place to live, and came to know it intimately. Veneux-Nadon, seventy-five kilometers from Paris, was his home from 1880. He then lived at Moret and Les Sablons for six years before returning to Moret in 1889. Although Tobias Smollett described Moret-sur-Loing as a "very paltry" place, nineteenth-century guidebooks praised its "commanding position on the Loing, its ramparts and gateway, its huge ruined donjon, and the beauties of its Gothic church."

Bridges were a favored subject and compositional device for Sisley, and the Pont de Moret provided inspiration for many works. He produced his first views of it in autumn 1887 and spring 1888 while based at Les Sablons, and several dramatic compositions show the bridge and mill under snow in 1890. He varied his perspectives of Moret, often focusing his compositions on the mill with the church of Notre-Dame behind it and depicting the other span of the bridge leading into the town through the Porte de Bourgogne. In 1891, he painted further down the Loing River from either bank, showcasing the townscape framed by, or seen through, a row of poplars. The following year, he varied his motif through a sequence depicting the same locations in the morning light and at sunset. Sisley seemed drawn to scenes with water, allowing him to capture reflections and dynamic riverbank activities.

By the time Sisley painted this canvas, he had clearly absorbed the elements of the surrounding landscape, utilizing a richly colored and densely structured composition of sky and clouds, bricks and mortar, water and reflections. He positioned himself closer to the bridge, creating a dramatic lead-in to the work as it sweeps from the lower-left of the canvas to the mill at the center. The picture plane is neatly divided, with the upper section of the sky punctuated by the partially obscured church tower, mill, and poplars. Unlike his contemporaries, Sisley's landscapes are rarely crowded with figures. Instead of featuring promenading couples or boating parties, the figures in Sisley's paintings blend seamlessly into their surroundings, incidental in both purpose and scale. The figures in *Moret Bridge* merge into the scene as naturally as the clouds in the sky or the reflections in the water below.

Inventory number: RF 1972 35 

Provenance:

perhaps in the François Depeaux collection, Rouen

until 1972, in the collection Dr Eduardo Mollard, Paris

1972, accepted by the State as a legacy of Enriqueta Alsop, in the name of Dr. Eduardo Mollard to the National Museums for the Jeu de Paume Museum

1972, attributed to the Louvre Museum, Paris

from 1972 to 1986, Louvre Museum, Jeu de Paume Gallery, Paris

1986, assigned to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris