View of Marly-le-Roi from Cœur-Volant

View of Marly-le-Roi from Cœur-Volant, painted during Sisley's residence at Marly between 1875 and 1878, takes its vantage point from the Cœur-Volant neighbourhood on the slopes above the town — an elevated position that allowed a broad prospect over the rooftops of Marly and toward the wooded plateau beyond. Sisley worked the Marly hills and terraces systematically, producing multiple views from different angles that together constitute one of the most sustained topographic investigations in Impressionist landscape painting. The name Cœur-Volant, meaning 'flying kite,' derived from one of the royal hunting lodges built for Louis XIV in the area, giving the painting a historical resonance beneath its deceptively simple landscape format.

Oil on canvas. The elevated vantage point creates a downward-sloping picture surface — rooftops and gardens occupying the foreground, the town spreading toward a horizon dominated by sky. Sisley's paint application at this period has a confident, varied rhythm: shorter strokes for building surfaces, more extended marks for the sky and vegetation beyond.