The Château de Chillon, on an islet off the northeastern shore of Lake Geneva, or Lac Léman, is one of most important historic buildings in Switzerland. A few kilometers east of Montreux, the thirteenth-century castle dominates the shoreline of the great lake.

    "The Prisoner of Chillon is a legendary account of the internment of the Genevan patriot François Bonivard (1493-1570). With my work on the monastic life, I was interested to learn that Bonivard had inherited from his uncle the position of commendatory prior of St. Victor, a Cluniac monastery near Geneva. Bonivard sided with Geneva in its opposition to the ruling Savoyards. He was captured by Duke Charles III of Savoy and imprisoned in the dungeon of Chillon from 1532 to 1536.

    "François Bonivard, the narrator of the poem, recounts with deep emotion the gruesome imprisonment in the dungeon he shared with his two younger brothers.

     Roseman's landscapes of the Château de Chillon span a decade. The artist began his work in 2002 and made many returns over the years to draw the historic castle from several perspectives in the changing seasons.

    Inspired by the castle's commanding presence along the northeastern shore of Lake Geneva and Lord Byron's famous poem The Prisoner of Chillon, Roseman created a series of superb drawings of the Château de Chillon.

     A prolific draughtsman, Roseman employs a variety of drawing materials with a masterly technique. The artist's extensive series of drawings of the Château de Chillon are rendered in chalks and pastels. The medium of pastel is akin to painting.

    "The narrator describes his brothers' slow and agonizing deaths. In the aftermath, the lone survivor meditates:

    "In the last lines of the poem, the Prisoner of Chillon reflects:

    "Bonivard endured four years imprisonment in 'a living grave.'

     Roseman has dedicated a large part of his work to drawing, considered the foundation of the visual arts. Giorgio Vasari, the celebrated, sixteenth-century Florentine architect, painter, and author, states in the preface to his famous series of biographies Lives of the Artists that drawing (disegno) is ''the parent of our three arts, Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, having its origin in the intellect.''[1] Vasari prized drawings for their inherent value and was the first great collector of drawings.[2]

     Drawings have traditionally served as studies or drafts in preparation for compositions to be realized in another medium. However, drawings can be works complete unto themselves. The artist's signature on a drawing, as well as the date or an inscription as to the identity of the sitter or place, confirm the artist's intention in creating an autonomous work.

     The Bibliothèque Nationale de France states in a biographical essay on Roseman:

     In January 2007, Roseman returned to draw the Château de Chillon, (fig. 4, below). Snow covered the roofs of the castle and had laid a carpet of white on the ground. Snow delineated bare branches along the wooded shore. From the rocks in the lower left foreground of this winter landscape, the curve of the coastline leads the viewer to the castle, a dominant presence in the expanse of pictorial space.

     Complementary to his paintings, sculptures, and engravings, Roseman's drawings which encompass a range of subjects in a variety of drawing materials, are autonomous works of art, as are his drawings of the Château de Chillon.

     Roseman drew Château de Chillon at Dusk, 2006, (fig.1), from a westerly view in proximity to the formidable castle. The striking composition contrasts the Gothic towers and battlements with the "massy waters" of Lake Geneva. The artist combines a painterly use of chalks and pastels to render in fine detail the medieval castle and fortress with its conical and pyramidal roofs of ochre and sanguine colored tiles. A covered footbridge over a moat links the castle to the shore. The artist silhouetted the Château de Chillon against an October sky of mauve, ochre, gray-blue, and white in this impressive work of art.

     In a text to accompany his drawings of the Château de Chillon, Roseman provides information on the ancient site where excavations have revealed human habitation since the Bronze Age. During the Roman occupation a guardhouse was built on the rocky islet. The castle's infamous history traces back to the ninth century. Roseman also provides information on the Prisoner of Chillon by Lord Byron and excerpts from the poem, as with several excerpts quoted below.

     Roseman drew the Château de Chillon with an approaching storm advancing over Lake Geneva, (fig. 2). The animated sky is rendered in tones of gray and gray-black, sienna, light ochre, gray-pink, and white. The artist juxtaposes verdant foliage with the geometric forms of the castle's Gothic architecture. A distant range of the Savoy Alps is partially veiled by gathering clouds. Splashing against the dark, rocky shore are white-capped waves that reflect luminous passages of the September sky in this superb drawing Château de Chillon, Approaching Storm, 2005.

     On excursions to the castle, Roseman was accompanied by his colleague Ronald Davis with whom the artist has shared a partnership over the years as recounted on this website. Landscapes are a major part of Roseman's oeuvre, and on their travels Davis took photographs of the artist drawing and painting en plein air.

     In his text Roseman describes drawing the castle from a perspective that looks east towards the rocky islet off the shore of Lake Geneva.

    "The descent was precarious. I carried my shoulder bag containing several boxes of chalks and pastels and a large portfolio case with my drawing book and extra sheets of paper. Ronald closely followed me while I walked carefully over the jagged rocks to find a rock with a somewhat flat surface to sit upon. From my vantage point near the water's edge, I had an excellent view of the Château de Chillon.''

    "Beyond the castle is a footpath bordered by trees and shrubs. Farther on, at a clearing along the edge of the path where a railing ends, I climbed down onto the large rocks along the lakeshore.

   "As January daylight hours are limited," recounts Roseman, "I began a landscape drawing of the marvelous castle in late afternoon in anticipation of capturing on paper a winter sunset."  The artist has blended tones of pink, light magenta and mauve with light blue-gray to render the thinly veiled sky. The setting sun casts a warm glow on the rising clouds. The movement in the sky is complemented by waves of the icy waters advancing to the shore in the splendid drawing Château de Chillon, Winter Sunset, 2007.