The Road from Versailles to Louveciennes

In the 1870s, Sisley, like his colleagues Monet and Pissarro, often painted the roads, bridges, and waterways linking Paris with the rapidly suburbanizing villages to the north and west. This picture depicts a site near the town of Louveciennes, on the main thoroughfare between Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Sisley's juxtaposition of two figures on the road—a laborer pushing a cart and a man wearing a sophisticated black suit and top hat—evokes the contrast between old-fashioned country life and modern urban society. The loose, summary brushwork is characteristic of Sisley’s technique in the latter part of the decade.