Ville-d'Avray

The pond at Ville-d'Avray was more or less Corot's own back garden. His father bought the property outside Paris in 1817, and Corot kept a room and a studio there for the rest of his life, walking down to the water early in the morning. This small study on paper shows the pond, the neighbouring Cabassud house and the far end of the family's land. It reached the Louvre in 1927 with the collection of Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, who left it on condition that it never be lent out, and it hangs with the rest of that bequest in the Sully wing.