View of the Château of Pierrefonds

About this work

You see a green, leafy foreground with trees and plants framing a distant view of a large, fairy-tale castle. The château of Pierrefonds sits on a hill under a soft sky, looking whole and grand, not broken or old. Light falls gently across the scene. This painting was made around 1870, after the castle had been rebuilt. Earlier, it was in ruins — like in a drawing by Camille Corot, a painter who inspired Français. Corot showed it broken; Français shows it restored, almost like a dream version. Look next at The Cleveland Museum of Art to see how 19th-century French artists viewed their country’s past. (Word count: 98)