French school of the mid-19th century

 Panorama of the royal castle of Amboise
 Oil on paper mounted on canvas
 Signed indistinctly lower left and dated
 31 x 46 cm
 May 1859

 A symbol of royal power during the Renaissance, the Château d'Amboise was destroyed during the Revolution, leaving only a fifth of its buildings from the time of its splendor. However, what remains of this grandiose castle remains impressive.

 Located in a strategic location on the Loire, the place has been inhabited since Antiquity. Clovis fought there against the Visigoths when it was still only an oppidum. It was only at the time of the Norman invasions that the Bishop of Tours entrusted the site to his family, that of Amboise, who built the first fortifications that would make the city the best-protected place in the west of the kingdom of the year 1000.
 From 1434, the castle became a royal possession after being confiscated following the plot against Louis de Trémoille, one of the favorites of the King, Charles VII. His son, Charles VIII, converted Amboise into a palace while retaining its defensive character. Security was such that the Château d'Amboise became the "school of Princes and Princesses" with a remarkable library, the collection of which would become the national library.
 Charles VIII undertook many developments from the beginning of his reign: the construction of the Saint Hubert chapel, the wing known as "Charles VIII", the two cavalier towers and the park. To build his palace, he enlisted the services of many French and Italian artists who would transform the castle in the Renaissance style. 250 masons worked permanently on the construction site. Louis XII, his successor, continued the development of Amboise with the construction of another wing and the Heurtault tower, completed under the reign of François I. Indeed, the latter abandoned Amboise in favor of Chambord, Blois and then Fontainebleau. However, he invited Leonardo da Vinci to stay at the Clos Lucé, which he would make his home at the end of his life.
 Henry II would make further enlargements with the construction of several buildings, but after him, the castle was abandoned and it would become a luxury prison for the great figures of the State. It would then pass to the Duke of Choiseul and then to the Duke of Penthièvre before falling into the hands of the revolutionaries in 1792.
 It was not the Revolution that destroyed the castle but its owner, Roger Ducos, who had acquired it thanks to Napoleon. Indeed, this man did not have the resources necessary for the maintenance of the building, he had two thirds of it destroyed, including the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin and the queens' apartments. Louis-Philippe I inherited the castle and continued the destruction of the houses adjoining the castle but redeveloped the Louis XII wing when the Revolution of 1848 confiscated everything again.
 In 1873, the Orléans family took over the château, which became a home for the elderly before Henri d'Orléans bequeathed it to the Fondation Saint-Louis, an organization that he founded and still manages today.

 Amboise is the first Italian-inspired castle in the Loire Valley, reflecting the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style. Indeed, while the Saint Hubert Chapel, built by Flemish artists in the pure Gothic style, the "Tour des Minimes" and the "Tour Heurtault" are Renaissance architecture, displaying an innovative technical feat that allowed carriages to access the castle terrace from the banks of the Loire.