Square in Argenteuil

Held at the Musée d'Orsay, this 1872 canvas shows a square in Argenteuil — the Seine riverside town that was Monet's primary base during the formative years of Impressionism. Sisley was working near Argenteuil at the same period, and the informal square subject shows him capturing an ordinary public space with the same democratic interest he brought to his rural subjects. Argenteuil in the early 1870s was a gathering point for the Impressionist circle, with Monet, Renoir, Manet, and Sisley all working in or near the town. This canvas documents that milieu through an Impressionist painter's attention to an unremarkable corner of a Seine village.

The village square is organized through a loose arrangement of buildings, trees, and open space. Sisley's technique in 1872 shows the developing Impressionist touch — short, varied strokes, outdoor freshness, and the pale luminosity he was consolidating. Warm ochre for building facades, green for trees, and a luminous sky compose the familiar Sisley palette.