The landscape of rivers and canals around Moret-sur-Loing, about seventy kilometers to the south of Paris, and its seasonal changes provided Alfred Sisley with the motifs of his late oeuvre. In the winter of 1891, he stood on the strip of land between the navigable Canal du Loing on the left and the river with its rapids on the right. In this vertical-format work, which is unusual in Impressionism, Sisley draws parallels between the two stretches of water flowing side by side and the tall poplars.