Vue générale des ruines du château d' Arlay

Bonington made this print for a huge multi-volume book called Picturesque and Romantic Voyages in Old France, which was designed to capitalize on the early nineteenth century’s fascination for the Middle Ages. He gives the castle, in eastern France, the full Romantic treatment, showing it in the distance, silhouetted by scudding clouds and lit by shafts of sunlight that highlight the stark, ruined walls.