« As an ambition, to paint the world »
From the southern reaches of the Kerguelen Islands to the lush ravines of the Indian Ocean, François Malbreil composes a monumental figurative oeuvre where geometric rigor meets the magnetic vibration of tropical light.
Red Bow, 2012
Oil on canvas — 116 x 89 cm
The red hull of the icebreaker raises its metal walls in the icy dawn of a polar day.
View full details →Themes
Each cycle explores a facet of the contemporary world — from austral solitudes to industrial harbors and equatorial flora.
In the Shade of the Tree Euphorbia, 2026
Oil on paper mounted on canvas — 50 x 70 cm
Madagascar, the Passionate Red Island
Fishermen, merchants, washerwomen, seashores and rivers
Over the years, Madagascar has become my second homeland. I live and paint there six months a year with an ever-renewed passion for the variety of subjects, with a particular fondness for life along the coastal shores. Tropical light is at the heart of my aesthetic.
Recent Works
Latest canvases executed en plein air and in the studio, between austral explorations and neotropical landscapes.
Canvas-topped Peugeot 404, 2026
Oil on canvas — 44 x 59 cm
In the Shade of the Tree Euphorbia, 2026
Oil on paper mounted on canvas — 50 x 70 cm
Anita on Yellow Background, 2026
Oil on canvas — 50 x 60 cm
Malagasy Bar, 2026
Oil on canvas — 50 x 44 cm
Beachside with Canopy, 2026
Oil on canvas — 65 x 91 cm
“As an ambition, to paint the world.”
“As an ambition, to paint the world. Neither more nor less: pacing its harbors, its airport tarmacs, its untamed ravines, and its austral seas to fix their exact light.”— François Malbreil — Studio Notebooks
The painting of François Malbreil does not stem from naive exoticism: it stems from lived geography. An insatiable surveyor, he sailed aboard the Marion Dufresne towards the Kerguelen, Crozet, and Saint-Paul and Amsterdam islands, documented feverish runways across international airports, and captured the incandescent vegetal density of Creole ravines.
Through an assertive ligne claire and crisp chromatic planes — deep cobalt blues, dense emerald greens, cadmium yellows of harbor cranes, and solar ochres —, each canvas becomes a freeze-frame in the ceaseless flow of the contemporary world.
