The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne

Alfred Sisley painted The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne in 1872, a year after moving to the village on the Seine north of Paris. A wooden bridge spans the river beneath a high, luminous sky, its timber structure and the row of poplars beyond reflected in the calm water. Sisley devoted his life to landscape and to the study of sky and light; this painting shows his gift for reconciling quiet structure with the tremulous effects of atmosphere.