DreamingofFrance

over again to the view shown here of the large white Cabassud houses behind a screen of trees, next to the rue du Lac (also called the “Chemin de Corot”) that separated the Sevres woods to the right and the pond at the left. Built as an inn in the late nineteenth century by Jean-Baptiste Cabassud (the writer Alphonse Daudet was a noted guest), these white buildings are landmarks in Corot’s numerous depictions of the area. Our work is a preparatory study for the painting Ville d’Avray. L’Etang et les maisons Cabassud (The Pond and the Cabassud Houses at Ville-d’Avray) , 1855 – 60 , in the Nathan Emory Coffin Collection of the Des Moines Art Center. Both works adopt the same point of view, looking across the pond toward the Cabassud houses with the rue du Lac at right.

Corot, Ville d’Avray: Pond and Cabassud Houses at Ville-d’Avray , oil on canvas, 18 ¼ x 21 ¾ inches, Des Moines Art Center (Robaut 917 )