The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand

The Seine at Port-Marly, Piles of Sand — Alfred Sisley. 1875.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 54.5 × 73.7 cm (21 7/16 × 29 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Of all the landscapes Alfred Sisley painted in and around Marly-le-Roi, where he lived from 1875 to 1878, this scene of workers dredging sand to facilitate barge traffic is perhaps the most original. Generally, the Impressionists showed the Seine River as a place of weekend leisure for Parisians, painting activities such as boating, yachting, promenading, and dining. Sisley depicted the river during the workweek, along with some of the men who depended on it for their livelihood.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.