Nature is not just a backdrop

Catalogue of the exhibition Nature is not just a backdrop, presented at the Maison Caillebotte, Yerres (8 May – 18 October 2026).

The catalogue puts forward a simple yet radical idea: nature is not a backdrop, but an active presence that transforms the way we see and challenges painting.

From Claude Monet, a seminal figure through his work on light and sensation, to contemporary artists Jacques Truphémus, Évi Keller, Malgorzata Pasko, Youcef Korichi, Markus Lüpertz, Charlotte de Maupeou, Érik Demazières and Ronan Barrot, the book traces a living lineage in which the landscape, rather than reproducing reality, reveals its forces and tensions.

Rich in contributions and analyses of works, this bilingual volume offers a sensitive and rigorous interpretation of landscape in painting, and invites us to rediscover nature as a major, living and profoundly contemporary subject.