The riot (2026) Original Oil Painting by Nicolas Maureau

Study for the series The Clouds, which will bring together twelve paintings around the great turning points of history and myth, where smoke — divine, sacrificial or from combat — becomes the very substance of rupture.
A young man raises a yellow vest like others have raised flags. Bare-chested, emerging from the clouds, he stares straight ahead — neither victor nor defeated. Simply standing.
This painting summons several layers of collective memory. The posture and tension owe something to Daumier and his Barricade — that way of capturing the popular body at the very moment of uprising. The raised arm recalls Delacroix and his Liberty, but also the silhouette of the statue that bears that name. An arm stretched toward the sky that has become, over the centuries, the universal gesture of emancipation.
The yellow vest is a marker of its time, as the Phrygian cap once was. An ordinary piece of fabric elevated to the rank of banner.
The clouds enveloping him are not celestial. They are tear gas smoke — repression made visible, the unbreathable air of contemporary revolt. The same volatile matter as the gunpowder of 19th century barricades, in another chemical form. The smoke has not changed sides.

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 65 x 81 x 1.7cm (unframed) / 65 x 81cm (actual image size)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: People and portraits