The calm waterway flowing past the village of Grez-sur-Loing was one of the first commercial canals built in France. Completed in 1723, it issues into the River Seine after running parallel to the somewhat treacherous River Loing for thirty miles. Similar projects were undertaken in America – the Dismal Swamp Canal, opened in 1805, and the Erie Canal in 1825. In Maryland, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was in operation by 1831. But by the mid-19th century, with the advent of steam boats and railroads, shipping canals were becoming obsolete. Their sleepy banks soon became perfect subjects for impressionist artists of all nationalities. Grez-sur-Loing, about forty-five miles south of Paris, attracted an international cadre of late 19th-century artists, writers, and musicians, including Americans such as Willard Metcalf. Many of the expatriates were Scandinavian, but the English composer Frederick Delius and the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson also spent time there.