View of Saint-Cloud, Near the Seine

This painting depicts the park associated with the royal Chateau of Saint-Cloud, famous for its terraced gardens overlooking the River Seine. At the left of the scene, one of the park's gazebos is set among the trees. This view from Saint-Cloud over the river was a traditional and popular one. Very little is known about the life of Pau de Saint-Martin. Most of his surviving works are landscapes, the titles of which indicate he painted in the Forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, as early as 1795. Perhaps the artist is most important as the teacher of his nephew Theodore Rousseau (1812–1867), who became the founder of the Barbizon school of landscape painting.