While Monet and Renoir were gravitating towards the charismatic landscapes of the Atlantic coast and the French Riviera, Sisley continued to focus on his own less dramatic surroundings. This stretch of the Seine, about thirty-five miles outside Paris, allowed him to explore the effects of early spring light. At right stands the grand 17th-century manor La Croix-Blanche, but Sisley took more interest in rendering the blue shadows of bare trees along the shore than in the grand building that gave the painting its name.
