In the second half of the 19th century, it was visited by several impressionist painters including Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne.
The commune was popular during the 19th century with artists and writers and Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Sisley and Degas all had villas here at one time or another.
The "old painter" described in the book before the first chapter is Alfred Sisley.
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Among the artists represented in his collection were Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, painters of the Barbizon school such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, Antoine Chintreuil, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Alfred Sisley, Paul Gauguin and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.
The study of the reflections of trees in water, one of his favourite motifs, inevitably recalls Impressionist precedents, such as Alfred Sisley, who remained faithful to Moret-sur-Loing and its peaceful, verdant countryside until his dying day.
The permanent collection includes over three hundred pieces by Salvador Dalí, as well as works by Sisley, Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse and Picasso.
The museum displays paintings by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Gellée, Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Greuze and a remarkable collection of 19th-century painting and sculpture: Ingres, Géricault, Delacroix, Courbet, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Cézanne, Modigliani, Carpeaux, Maillol, Rodin etc.
He practiced plein air painting in southern France and at Moret-sur-Loing, where he met the English Impressionist Alfred Sisley.