Landscape with Watermill

Jean Jacques de Boissieu (1736-1810) was a French printmaker known for the precisely observed, atmospherically composed etchings that make him one of the most accomplished printmakers of the 18th-century French tradition. Landscape with Watermill from c. 1790 depicts a landscape with a watermill in the precisely observed, atmospherically composed manner that distinguishes de Boissieu's best work from the more general etching of his contemporaries. De Boissieu was known for his precisely observed, atmospherically composed etchings of French and Italian landscapes that combine the precision of the topographical tradition with the atmosphere of the picturesque, and Landscape with Watermill shows the French etching tradition at its most accomplished.

Landscape with Watermill is important in the history of French printmaking because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospherically composed manner that de Boissieu brought to etching as one of the most accomplished printmakers of the 18th-century French tradition. De Boissieu's precisely observed, atmospherically composed etchings of French and Italian landscapes—combining the precision of the topographical tradition with the atmosphere of the picturesque—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in French printmaking, and the c. 1790 etching shows this tradition at its most precisely observed.

Landscape with Watermill is de Boissieu's precisely observed French etching: a landscape with a watermill rendered in the atmospherically composed manner of one of the most accomplished printmakers of the 18th-century French tradition. The c. 1790 etching shows the combination of topographical precision with picturesque atmosphere that makes de Boissieu distinctive.