''The Canal du Loing'' or ''The Canal du Loing at Moret'' is an 1892 painting by
Alfred Sisley, donated to the
Musée du Luxembourg after the painter's death in 1899 by a group of the painter's friends headed by
Claude Monet. It is now in the
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...
(INV 20723).
A similar work, painted in winter 1891, is now in the
National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers
The National Museum of Fine Arts in Algiers (french: Musée national des Beaux-Arts d'Alger) is one of the largest art museums in Africa. Opened to the public since 5 May 1930, it is located in the Hamma district, next to the Hamma test gard ...
.
Production
It was produced after Sisley settled in
Moret-sur-Loing for good. The town was criss-crossed by several watercourses, notably the picturesque river
Loing, the left tributary of the
Seine
)
, mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur
, mouth_coordinates =
, mouth_elevation =
, progression =
, river_system = Seine basin
, basin_size =
, tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle
, tributarie ...
.
The Canal du Loing is no longer bordered by trees as shown.
[ Sylvie Patin, ''Sisley: Royal Academy of Arts, Londres, 3 juillet-18 octobre 1992, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 28 octobre 1992-31 janvier 1993, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 14 mars-13 juin 1993'', Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992, p.240] Sisley commented to
Adolphe Tavernier the same year as painting the work "the sky can never be merely a background
..I emphasize this part of a landscape because I would like to make you understand the importance I attach to it.
..I always begin a picture with the sky".
[
Gustave Geffroy described another painting of the same subject by Sisley: "I paint a winter day, frosty and sunny. The ground, the sky, the canal, the fine skeleton of the trees, all is mauve, phasing towards pink, the air is gilded. Three parallel roads, developed in depth, lead to a distant background lined with poplars. Beside the metallic water meander a dark man and a clear horse, both tiny next to the sparkling hedge, burning with colour. The atmosphere is so pure that if the dark man uttered a cry, the three ways and the canal would carry the echo to the vaults of the world."
]
Gallery
Image:Le Canal du Loing en hiver.jpg, '' The Canal du Loing in Winter'' 1891 by Alfred Sisley, National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers
The National Museum of Fine Arts in Algiers (french: Musée national des Beaux-Arts d'Alger) is one of the largest art museums in Africa. Opened to the public since 5 May 1930, it is located in the Hamma district, next to the Hamma test gard ...
Image:Chemin le long du canal du Loing.jpg, ''Path beside the canal du Loing'' 1891 by Alfred Sisley, location unknown
Image:L'Orvanne et le canal du Loing en hiver.jpg, ''The Orvanne and the canal du Loing in Winter'' 1891 par Alfred Sisley, private collection
Reception
Hergé's 1958 '' Coke en stock'' includes Captain Haddock acquiring the painting reflecting Hergé's interest in painting at this time. It also formed part of the French Post's Year of Impressionism via a stamp with an intaglio reproduction of the painting by Pierre Gandon
Pierre Gandon was a French illustrator and engraver of postage stamps. He was born on 20 January 1899 in L'Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) and died on 23 July 1990.
Youth
His father Gaston Gandon was himself an engraver at the Institut de gravure o ...
.[''Connaissance des arts'', Volumes 275 à 280, Société d'études et de publications économiques, 1975, p. 19]
See also
* List of paintings by Alfred Sisley
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canal du Loing, The
Paintings by Alfred Sisley
1892 paintings
Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay
Canal du Loing