Windmills on the Picardy hill

The butte de Picardie in the Louvre's title is the rise on the edge of Versailles where the road from Ville-d'Avray comes out of the forest of Fausses-Reposes. Corot knew that road well. In 1817 his father had bought a country house at Ville-d'Avray, beside the ponds his son would paint for the rest of his life. The title speaks of twin mills, yet on the canvas one stands clear, a pale stone tower under a dark pointed cap, its sails against a grey sky and the long tail pole, used to turn the cap, slanting down behind it. A sandy track curves past green fields toward a few houses among trees. The picture is tiny, about 20 by 30 centimetres, and the Louvre dates it only to the third quarter of the century.