The church at Moret, Rainy Weather, Morning

The Church at Moret in Rainy Weather, Morning of 1893, held at the Museum Langmatt in Switzerland, belongs to the most systematic phase of Sisley's church series — his sustained investigation of the Gothic façade of Saint-Martin at Moret under every atmospheric condition, explicitly comparing to Monet's cathedral and haystack series of the same years. Rain was one of his most technically demanding atmospheric conditions: wet stone absorbs and reflects light differently from dry masonry, the sky takes on a flat, luminous quality that unifies the tonal relationships of the composition. Monet's Rouen Cathedral series, begun in 1892–93, treated a far more elaborate Gothic façade under similar varied atmospheric conditions; Sisley's Moret church series, less celebrated but equally systematic, applied the same serial inquiry to a more modest medieval building whose intimacy suited his temperament better than Monet's grand theatrical program. The Museum Langmatt in Baden, Switzerland, holds this as part of a distinguished Swiss collection built by Sidney and Jenny Brown in the early twentieth century.

The rain-wet atmosphere unifies the palette in cool silvers, grey-blues, and muted ochres. The church facade loses the crisp definition of the sunshine versions, its carved detail softened by rain. Sisley builds the wet atmosphere through close-valued colour harmonies and soft-edged forms. The foreground includes the wet street, reflecting the sky and church in muted tones.