Jean-Jacques DE BOISSIEU (1736 - 1810) - Castle of Pierre Scize

Jean-Jacques DE BOISSIEU (Lyon, 1736 - id., 1810) - Castle of Pierre Scize

Son of a doctor from Lyon, de Boissieu first took drawing lessons with a teacher named Lombard before attending the studio of history painter Charles Frontier. A Parisian engraver and print dealer, Pariset, entrusted him with the production of some etchings and published six sheets of sketches under the title of Livre d'esquisses créations et gravées par de Boisseau. He then engraved six landscapes: Landscapes drawn and engraved by J.-J.-D. B., Lyon (1759).In 1760, he corresponded with the engraver J.-G. Wille, begging him to help him sell some drawings in Paris. In 1761, his mother finally agreed to allow him to go to Paris, where he spent three years (1761-1764) in the company of J.-G. Wille, Joseph Vernet, W.-D. B. Lyons (1759). Wille, Watelet, Greuze, Soufflot and the young duke Alexandre de la Rochefoucauld, who took a liking to him. The duke took him to Lyon and took him with several friends to Italy.In their company, de Boissieu was able to visit Genoa and Naples, stay in Rome (1764-1765), and draw in museums and from nature.
On his return to Lyon, he resumed engraving and painting. However, as he was in fragile health, he could not stand the smell of paint and produced etchings, pencil drawings and washes. In 1771, he entered the service of the French Treasury in Lyon and married in 1773.His fortune was shaken by the Revolution, but the painter David managed to allay his fears and his copper engravings were placed "under the protection of the law". He continued to work until the end of his life, advising and influencing young artists in Lyon at the beginning of the nineteenth century. His landscapes, interiors and portraits are painted from life and imbued with a spirit of truth. The few paintings he has produced are finely drawn with a light use of colour that tends towards monotony. Most of them were made at the beginning of his career, around 1773-1780. These include: Man Blowing on His Soup (Salon des Arts, Lyon, 1786), exhibited with eight drawings and two etchings, several Landscapes (Louvre, Berlin, Nantes), Cattle Market, Cellier and Portrait of Mme J.-J. de Boissieu (Lyon),Soap Bubbles, Preparations for Dinner and Festive Bouquet (three canvases exhibited at the 1877 Lyon retrospective). As a wash painter, he has rarely been surpassed for his wide, expansive brushstrokes and finish, seemingly effortless and resulting in works of great accessibility. According to the catalogue of his etchings, he produced 140 plates, some after Ruysdael.In his etchings, which are appreciated for the harmony of their delicate lines, de Boissieu always sought to reproduce his elaborate life studies exactly, bringing out the softness of his pencil lines, the shading of his colours, and the vigour and chiaroscuro of his washes.

In this work, De Boissieu depicts Pierre Scize's castle. In the commune of Lyon, in the present-day metropolis of Lyon, stood the castle of Pierre Scize, also known as the castle of Pierre Encise, which has unfortunately disappeared. It occupied a strategic position, facing the Saône at the western entrance to Lyon, which materialized the border between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Perhaps the residence of the former kings of Burgundy, certainly that of the archbishops of Lyon, recovered by Louis XI as a state prison, the castle was demolished in 1793.