Thie line of poplars edging the park of the Ch‰teau at Marcouville belong to a series of almost monochromatic landscapes which CŽzanne painted around Paris.
The rendering of the leaves through geometrical brush strokes applied in a hatching, parallel fashion, give a very strong structure to the enormous mass of foliage rising above the upright tree trunks. The rigorous treatment states quite clearly the artist's intention to dissociate himself from the allusive nature of the Impressionists' brush strokes. The skill in this landscape is to render the shape and volume of the trees without resorting to a realistic treatment of the elements. The decreasing size of the poplars guides the eye along a sinuous line through to the back of the composition which is closed by a hill. This suppleness, echoed also in the serpentine line followed by the path, is counterbalancing the vertical screen formed by the trees across the composition.
