Boat in the Flood at Port-Marly

Held at the Musée d'Orsay, this 1876 canvas shows a boat in the floodwater at Port-Marly — one of several versions Sisley made of the 1876 Seine floods. The sight of a boat navigating through the streets of a flooded village, with the inn sign reflected in still water, gave Sisley a subject of visual and human drama combined with atmospheric interest. These Port-Marly flood paintings are his most celebrated works, and this version focuses on the boat as the human presence within the extraordinary landscape of the flood. The floodwaters transformed the familiar village into an alien, beautiful environment.

The flood water's still surface carries reflections of the sky and buildings, rendered through horizontal strokes of cool grey-blue and pale ochre. The boat provides a focal element of human scale and warmth against the expansive water. Sisley handles the reflections with his most careful technique, differentiating the building reflections from the sky reflections in the flood surface.