Les bords de la Seine en Eté

Les bords de la Seine en Eté of 1877 places Sisley beside France's greatest river during a year when his personal circumstances were deteriorating — financial hardship, the end of his Marly tenancy, the continuing failure of Impressionist painting to find a commercial audience. The Seine near Marly and Louveciennes had been his primary working territory since the early 1870s, and the summer river view was among his most practiced subjects: broad water reflecting the sky, tree-lined banks, the particular quality of summer afternoon light on the Île-de-France. By 1877 he had been painting this river for six years and could approach it with the confident intimacy of deep familiarity. The third Impressionist exhibition had taken place in 1877 with Sisley participating, but commercial success remained elusive. Monet was developing a slightly more theatrical approach to Seine landscape at Argenteuil; Pissarro was pushing toward a more complex social vision at Pontoise; Sisley maintained his characteristically quiet atmospheric concentration. This 1877 summer Seine canvas stands at the end of his Seine period before his eventual move to the Loing valley in 1880.

The summer Seine is painted with Sisley's mature Impressionist technique: varied directional brushwork across the water surface, the colour of sky and foliage reflected and modified by the river's movement. The palette is warm and full-keyed — the summer greens, blues, and warm whites that characterise his best 1870s work. The composition is horizontally organised, the river as the dominant structural element.