Chateau en Bretagne, paysage d'automne 1973

This vivid and atmospheric landscape, titled Château en Bretagne, paysage d'automne, is a masterwork of Bernard Buffet, one of the most distinctive and prolific French painters of the 20th century. Issued as a poster in 1973, it exemplifies Buffet's brooding visual language and his ability to render emotionally charged rural scenes.

At the heart of the composition, a cluster of leafless trees frames a reflective pond and a château with pointed turrets, nestled in the rolling hills of Brittany. The architecture glows faintly yellow under a turbulent, grey autumn sky. Buffet's signature spiky outlines and stark contrasts heighten the melancholic stillness of the season, suggesting the quiet grandeur and solitude of the countryside.

Rendered in expressive, almost skeletal brushwork, the poster merges the austerity of Expressionism with the graphic boldness of postwar modernism. The meticulous detailing of tree limbs, shadowy reflections, and angular rooftops reflects Buffet’s unflinching aesthetic—one that never idealized, but always intensified.

This poster is not merely decorative; it’s a visual poem on autumnal decline, architectural memory, and natural silence, filtered through the intense gaze of one of France’s most uncompromising modern artists.

Lithographie

Expressionism - France - Frédéric Birr

Printed by Draeger in Paris

Bon étatlégère saleté