Watermark: none.
Signed and dated in brush at lower right, "DB 1774"; inscribed by the artist in graphite at bottom center, "vue Dessinée du chateau de Beaulieu en Lionnois".
Jean-Jacques de Boissieu studied painting first in his native Lyon with the history painter Jean-Charles Frontier and then in Paris where he was further encouraged by Pierre Alexandre Wille. Some of his earliest works are the series of landscape etchings he called Griffonnements, which date to 1759 and consist of views around Lyon. Following the success of these prints, Boissieu was in considerable demand and turned eventually to the production of composed landscapes, although he always retained his interest in topography.
A sizable group of his drawings is preserved today in the museum at Darmstadt (see Gisela Bergsträsser, "Zeichnungen von J. J. de Boissieu im Hessischen Landesmuseum zu Darmstadt," "Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein" 10, 1970, pp. 89ff.): and a number of his drawings have appeared on the market in recent years, including at least two self-portraits, one of which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the other in a private collection in New York (repr. Richard Day Ltd., 1990, no. 24).
Dimsdale, Thomas, 1758-1823, former owner.
Frauenholz, Johann Friedrich, 1758-1822, former owner.
Mayor, William, 1826-1892, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913. former owner.
"A Brief Chronological Description of a collection of original drawings and sketches by the old masters of the different schools of Europe: from the revival of art in Italy in the XIIIth to the XIXth century/ formed by the late Mr. William Mayor; the result of upwards of fifty years' experience and research", London 1875, no. 593