Moret is the old-fashioned riverside town where Philip Carey and Lawson spend a summer painting near the forest of Fontainebleau. The stay gives Philip his first pleasure in working with oils, but it also exposes the gap between artistic ambition and imitation: under Lawson’s influence, he initially sees and paints through his friend’s eyes. The town’s landscape becomes both a working ground and a setting for Philip’s reveries, until changing weather sends the group back to Paris.

Setting and Arrival

During the summer, restlessness draws the young artists out of Paris. Philip and Lawson choose the forest of Fontainebleau, while Ruth Chalice knows of a hotel at Moret; the prospect of her company and the modest railway fare help make the trip attractive. Their plans belong to a wider seasonal departure: the painters discuss canvases, sketching panels, and possible destinations, each seeking subjects beyond the city.

Moret is described as an old-fashioned town of one street on the edge of the forest. The Ecu d'Or, where the party stays, retains a decrepit air associated with the Ancien Régime and faces the winding Loing. Ruth has a small terrace overlooking the river, the old bridge, and its fortified gateway. A narrow canal bordered by poplars runs into the river nearby, providing a route for walks after the day’s work and a recurring focus for the painters’ attention.

Painting and the Landscape

The visitors paint throughout the day, but their approach is shaped as much by resistance as by attraction. They fear the picturesque and turn away from Moret’s obvious beauty in search of subjects without the prettiness they distrust. Though Sisley and Monet had painted the canal and its poplars, the group is wary of the scene’s formal appeal. Ruth begins a picture that cuts off the tree tops; Lawson places a large blue Menier chocolate advertisement in the foreground to counter the effect of a conventional, chocolate-box view.

In Moret, Philip begins painting in oils and feels an immediate delight in the medium. He goes out in the mornings with Lawson, setting up beside him to paint a panel. Yet the pleasure initially conceals dependence: Philip copies Lawson, whose low-toned palette makes the grass seem like dark velvet and turns the bright sky into brooding ultramarine. Moret therefore marks a genuine technical beginning, but not yet an independent artistic vision.

The summer heat interrupts the work. Through July, fine weather leaves Philip languid and unable to concentrate; he spends mornings in the shade of the poplars, reading a few lines before drifting into thought. At times he hires a rickety bicycle and rides the dusty road toward the forest, then lies in a clearing. The landscape’s heat and quiet open space accompany romantic fancies rather than sustained painting, showing how the town’s surroundings draw Philip away from the easel as readily as they invite him to work.

Reverie and Return

Moret also becomes a setting for Philip’s idealized desire. Away from Ruth, he imagines her beauty and pictures himself in her arms; when they are together, however, he notices details that repel him and cannot imagine kissing her. The contrast troubles him: longing flourishes in her absence, while proximity alters his perception. The town’s walks and solitary intervals give that contradiction room to recur, without resolving it into a romance.

A change in the weather announces the definite end of the long summer and drives the party back to Paris. The departure closes Moret’s role as a temporary refuge from city routine, but Philip returns with a new medium and continuing enthusiasm for his work. The episode’s artistic promise remains qualified: he has discovered the pleasure of oils, yet his paintings still depend on Lawson’s example, and the summer’s beauty has nourished daydreams as much as disciplined practice.