Chapel near Château d'Ussé — Benazech

A serene hand-coloured lithograph of the riverside chapel beside the famed Château d'Ussé in the Loire Valley.

Original title: Chapelle près du Château d'Ussé. Drawn by P. Benazech; engraved by Robert Bénard. From Voyage Pittoresque de la France. Paris, c. 1780.

Hand-coloured lithograph of Jean-Benjamin de La Borde's Voyage Pittoresque de la France (1781–1796) brought together France's leading topographical draughtsmen and engravers — among them the prolific Robert Bénard — to record the nation's châteaux, abbeys, and landscapes. The Renaissance Collégiale Notre-Dame d'Ussé, set on the banks of the Indre below the storybook château reputed to have inspired Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, is here rendered in a quietly pastoral idiom.

Hand-coloured lithograph. Sheet approximately 42.9 × 59.4 cm. Very Good condition with light age toning.