Barges on the Loing Canal, Spring 1896

Alfred Sisley painted "Barges on the Loing Canal, Spring", using oil on canvas, an inexpensive and highly flexible material. The oil paint lends itself to capturing the fleeting effects of light on the water and the reflections of the trees. Sisley built up the image with countless small touches of pigment, reflecting the Impressionist interest in capturing the immediate experience of a scene. But this seemingly spontaneous style was very deliberate. Every dab of paint was laid down with precision, building up a surface that has a shimmering, almost vibrating quality. Here, Sisley wasn't just representing a scene, but conveying a sense of the hard work that happened along the Loing Canal. Canals like this were the industrial highways of their day. The painting doesn't hide the marks of its own making: the strokes of the brush, the buildup of paint, the material reality of art. This takes it beyond just a pretty picture, inviting us to consider the physical and social context that shaped its creation.