Specialised in hyperrealistic paintings, contemporary artist Guillaume Bresson – considered one of the biggest names in figurative French painting – is showing his work in the Africa rooms of the Château de Versailles with his scenes of people fighting, often in bleak suburbia, inspired by religious and historical paintings.

Born in 1982 in Toulouse and now based in New York, artist Guillaume Bresson creates paintings that could almost be mistaken for photos, and while the scenes are unmistakebly modern, the reverence for classical paintings of landscapes, war or religious subjects can be strongly felt.

The language of the subjects’ bodies and the atmosphere of confrontation are put injuxtaposition with the large paintings of battles by Horace Vernet showing the colonial conquest of Northern Africa by Louis-Philippe Ier in 1830 and 1840, lending a nobility to Bresson’s scenes, both contemporary and carefully choreographed.

Admission to the exhibition is included in your Chateau visit ticket, and at weekends staff is on hand to answer your questions about the paintings, with free 30-minute guided visits available in English between 10am and 4pm, no booking required.

An “exceptional evening” for the exhibition is being held on Friday 21st March, closing at 11pm (last entrance 10pm), with the rest of the Château closed. A round table event will held in French from 7-8.30pm, but there are no details of what else is in store, unfortunately.

And the official bilingual catalogue of the exhibition is being published on 5th February by Flammarion – 160 pages, 60€ 😱, available here at your local Amazon.

You can preview 20 pages of the catalogue here.

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The Guillaume Bresson exhibition is at the Château de Versailles (here) from 21st January-25th May 2025

Open every day except Monday from 9am-6pm

Admission included in the Chateau ticket (from 10€-32€)

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