A pencil, watercolour and bodycolour drawing of the back of the château of Saint-Cloud, with many guests enjoying the grounds. Signed lower right: E. GRANDSIRE.

In August 1855 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spent ten days in Paris, on the invitation of Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie. The historic state visit was intended to celebrate the military alliance between Britain and France in the Crimean War, and followed a visit by the imperial couple to Windsor in April that year. The party stayed in the château of Saint-Cloud, to the west of Paris, which was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War. Queen Victoria's apartments are on the right, with two figures on the balcony. Eugène Grandsire exhibited at the Salon from 1850, and published an album of lithographs that year showing the residences of the exiled Bourbon family.