Skip to main content

The Bridge at Moret, April Morning (work of art)

Artwork Info

Created
1888
Artist
Alfred Sisley
Nationality
British
Birth/Death
1839-1899
Dimensions
25 1/2 × 36 1/4 inches (64.8 × 92.1 centimeters)

Credit

Gift of Julian and Josie Robertson

Object Number
2023.5.3
Culture
British French
Classification
Paintings
Department
European to 1910

Key Ideas about this Work of Art

  • This painting depicts a bridge in Moret, France. Artist Alfred Sisley moved to Moret in 1880 and painted many locations throughout the village. 
  • Sisley was a French impressionist painter. Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began in Paris. Impressionist artists used quick, loose brushstrokes and bright paint colors to create outdoor scenes. They often depicted different weather conditions, the movement of water, and the effects of sunlight at different times of day.
  • Sisley preferred to paint en plein air (outdoors). He is believed to have produced more than 900 oil paintings (mostly landscapes), around 100 pastels, and many drawings during his artistic career. 
  • The cathedral and the gate with a pointed roof (the two tallest buildings in this landscape) still stand today in Moret.

Learn More

The impressionist painter Alfred Sisley was famous for his sensitivity to light and color. Here we see the clear and vibrant tones of an April morning in the small town of Moret to the southeast of Paris, where Sisley moved in 1880.

Like many of his fellow impressionists, Sisley found great inspiration in the French countryside, creating many variations of this idyllic view of Moret and other sites around the village. The two tallest buildings in this painting are famous medieval structures that still stand in the city today: the cathedral at left and the gate with a pointed roof at right.

Additional Resources

Resources for Teachers

 

Resources for Students

Images

  • An oil painting of a landscape scene. The lower half of the painting is the water of a river in shades of blue, green, and tan. A stone bridge with arched openings underneath cuts through the middle of the painting. There is a stone building on an island that is attached to the middle of the bridge. Above that is a village skyline made of stone buildings. The tallest of the buildings is a cathedral with a spire that is just left of center. Above the buildings is a blue sky with a few white clouds.

    The Bridge at Moret, April Morning