Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany at the Château de Langeais in 1491.
Léon Constant Duval (1877 to 1956) drew its gateway towers for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans series promoting the Châteaux de la Loire automobile and rail circuits, and Lucien Serre & Cie of Paris printed it. Duval produced railway lithographs for the PO and the Chemins de Fer de l'État from 1910 until nationalisation in 1937. This one was issued about 1927 from his own atelier at 19 Villa Chaptal, Levallois-Seine.
The château was rebuilt in 1465 on the orders of Louis XI. Jacques Siegfried bought it in 1886, restored it and left it to the Institut de France.
On the poster
The gateway towers of the Château de Langeais fill the upper two-thirds of the sheet, round bastions of warm ochre tufa stone rising above a broad cobbled street where figures in period dress go about their day. A rider in a red coat walks left of centre, a horse-drawn vehicle stands in the mid-distance, and groups of townspeople cluster on the right pavement. Raking afternoon light throws hard shadows from the tower bases, and terracotta chimney stacks above the conical slate roofs glow against a pale turquoise sky.
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.
