Gezicht op de Orangerie van het Château de Saint-Cloud 1730

This scenic view of the Orangerie of the Château de Saint-Cloud, was rendered anonymously with pen, brush, and watercolor. The materials are of the traditional kind that we find in fine art: paper, pigments, and skillful handwork. The image depicts an aristocratic scene of leisure and manufactured nature. The artist would have needed precision and patience to capture the scene in such detail, and a working knowledge of linear perspective to render the building and gardens. The work is relatively small, suggesting that it may have been made for personal enjoyment, rather than for public display. In its time, the kind of leisure presented here was inextricably linked with class and labor. While some enjoyed the château’s curated gardens, many more toiled to create and maintain them. This contrast, between the ease of the few and the work of the many, reminds us that the art of any era always sits within a context of social production.