This drawing by Jean-Jacques de Boissieu shows us a vanished monument of the city of Lyon : the “Porte de Pierre Scize”, also known as the “Porte de Vaise”.
Located on the outskirts of the Château de Pierre Scize (no longer in existence), this gate completely closed the passage between the rock and the Saône. The gate was flanked by two half-bastions. It was here that most royal entrances took place, often following a long-prepared ceremony. The Porte de Vaise was finally demolished during the French Revolution, so that Lyon could become an "open city".
Born on April 20, 1736, Jean-Jacques de Boissieu was the son of Jacques de Boissieu, a Lyon physician, and Antoinette Vialis. However, his natural aptitude for drawing, revealed by his maternal grandfather's copying of master paintings, led his parents to direct him towards industrial art for the neighboring silk industry.
He completed his artistic education with a stay in Paris, where he arrived on July 28, 1762, to meet up with the engraver J.G.Wille (1715-1807), with whom he had been corresponding for almost a year. Among others, he made friends with the Duke Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, who took him on his grand tour of Italy in 1765.
He married Anne Roch de Valous in 1772 and lived in the Lyonnais countryside, either in Crussol or l'Arbresle, where he sketched the sites. His health, impaired by the preparation of colors since his Parisian sojourn, forced him to devote himself exclusively to engraving: first mixed etching, then drypoint and roulette.
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