Rosny (Yvelines). Chateau of the Duchess of Berry

In August 1818 the Duke of Berry, a nephew of King Louis XVIII, bought the château of Rosny on the Seine for his young wife, Marie-Caroline. The brick and stone house had been built around 1600 for Sully, the chief minister of Henri IV. Two years later the duke was stabbed to death at the door of the Paris Opéra, and the duchess kept Rosny as her summer home. The revolution of 1830 sent her family into exile. Between 1836 and 1837 the estate went to an English banker, while its contents were auctioned off. So the house Corot dated 1840 had already passed out of her hands. He shows its long front across a sloping lawn, with steep dark roofs, tall chimneys and a few small figures on the grass.