Landscape with Château Galliard

Jean-Jacques de Boissieu carefully framed his motif: an abandoned fortified house in Lyon known as Château Gaillard. Viewed from below, the ruins loom over the landscape; two minute figures in the foreground heighten the castle's imposing presence. Bathed in clear light, the two women are paired with two equally tiny pots of flowers, small symbols of a tamed and cultivated natural world. But for the most part, nature cannot be contained. Foliage and trees spring forth from the craggy inclines and ruins. Nature and the man-made intermingle and are brought closer together by a shared palette of browns and greens.

As a draftsman, Boissieu is best known for drawings like this one: large-scale land...