item details
Jacob van Ruisdael; after
Overview
Jean-Jacques de Boisseau (1736-1810), a French draughtsman, etcher and engraver. Born in Lyon, he studied at the École Gratuite de Dessin in his home town, but was mostly self-taught. He began making prints in the period 1758–64, then went to Italy in the retinue of the ambassador Louis Alexandre, Duc de la Rochefoucauld d'Enville; he met Voltaire on his way, and returned with a collection of landscape drawings. Boissieu made several plates for the Diderot-d'Alembert Encyclopédie. He continued to produce prints in Lyon, which earned him a reputation as the last representative of the older etching tradition. Boissieu made many etchings of the Roman and here the Dutch countryside, as well as the countryside around Lyon. He was also sought after - again evident here - as a reproductive engraver.
The inscription on another version of this high quality etching/ drypoint states that the original (drawing) by the great Dutch landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael came from the collection of M. Tronchin, a senior state counsellor. The same work is now in the Louvre, Paris. A friend of the Tronchin family since 1765, de Boissieu returned to Geneva in late 1781 to engrave works in famous collections such as these. This print is part of a series of works, notable for their large size and finished execution, that Boissieu finished in July 1782.
Sources:
Art Institute of Chicago, 'Watermill', https://www.artic.edu/artworks/108945/watermill
British Museum Collection online, 'Jean-Jacques de Boissieu' (biographical details), https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=131842
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019