From April 19, 2025 to March 29, 2026, the Musée GRATALOUP presented The Colors of Water, an exhibition dedicated to one of the most important themes in GRATALOUP’s work: water as a source of life, movement, memory, and transformation.

Conceived by Milena Cheynet de Beaupré, founder and director of the museum, the exhibition brought together a selection of works spanning several decades of the artist’s career. Through this journey, visitors discovered the richness of GRATALOUP’s vision of this fundamental element, at times peaceful, at times powerful, yet always deeply symbolic. From the monumental paintings of the Nantua series (2007) to the vast seascapes of High Seas (Haute Mer, 2007), and earlier works such as The Great Wave (1996), the exhibition revealed both the continuity of this theme throughout his oeuvre and the diversity of artistic approaches it inspired.

Water appears in these works as a mirror, a boundary, a space of travel, a creative force, and a primordial power. Through subtle variations of light, color, and texture, GRATALOUP developed a sensitive reflection on the relationship between humanity and nature, and on mankind’s place within a world in constant transformation.

To enrich this artistic dialogue, Milena Cheynet de Beaupré invited renowned photographer and environmental advocate Yann Arthus-Bertrand to present, in the museum gardens, a selection of large-scale photographs from his iconic project Earth from Above, focusing on the theme of water. Rivers, oceans, deltas, glaciers, and landscapes shaped by water offered a striking photographic counterpart to GRATALOUP’s painted visions.

The exhibition design, created by Milena Cheynet de Beaupré, established a continuous dialogue between painting, photography, heritage, and landscape. Inside the chapel, GRATALOUP’s works invited visitors into a poetic and symbolic immersion, while outside, Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s photographs highlighted both the beauty and the fragility of the natural balances that sustain life on our planet.

Enjoying remarkable public success throughout its presentation, The Colors of Water became a major milestone in the history of the Musée GRATALOUP. The exhibition significantly strengthened the museum’s cultural profile beyond the town of Chevreuse and confirmed its position as one of the leading cultural institutions of the Chevreuse Valley. It also demonstrated the museum’s ability to build meaningful connections between artistic disciplines while placing GRATALOUP’s work in dialogue with some of the most pressing environmental and societal concerns of our time.