In 1880, Alfred Sisley moved to the town Moret-sur-Loing near the Fontainebleau forest southeast of Paris. In the 1890s, he made several paintings of scenes from the river Loing in this region. This painting, however, is of the Loing canal that runs parallel with the river. With broad brush strokes, the artist has captured the clouds, the rows of poplars along the bank and the reflections in the water. The cool colours of the trees and ground indicate that the landscape is covered in frost.