Moret au Coucher du Soleil, Octobre

Sisley returned to the town of Moret-sur-Loing again and again during the last decade of his life, and this October sunset view belongs to that obsessive late engagement with the Seine valley village. Having moved to Moret permanently in 1889, he painted its church, bridge, and riverside light in dozens of canvases, treating the motif the way Monet treated Giverny's haystacks — as a vehicle for atmospheric variation across time and season. The October light here, long and raking, gave him the warm amber tones that offset his habitual coolness, and the fading year suited his temperament: of all the major Impressionists, Sisley was the most consistently melancholy in his landscapes.

Sisley applies paint in short, diagonal strokes that follow the slope of the terrain, unifying sky and earth with a similar touch. The warm ochres and burnt oranges of the autumn foliage are played against cool blue-violet shadows in a complementary tension characteristic of his late palette.