In 2018, a major exhibition is taking place at the Limoges Museum of Fine Arts. Gustave Guillaumet (1840-1887) is a painter who draws inspiration from early photographic works for the composition of part of his work. Realistic, it tells the history of Algeria in the 1860s and after. He will witness the violence, the poverty of the people and the living conditions. From history painting to genre painting, the evolution of the artist can be discovered in this exhibition.

Born on March 25, 1840, Gustave Guillaumet discovered Algeria by chance when he was about to embark for Italy. Over the course of his ten or eleven trips and extended stays, he established a familiarity with this space. Traveling through the different regions from north to south, he never ceases to note the differences. He is also the first artist, apart from Delacroix's Women of Algiers, to penetrate into female interiors and reveal the reality, far removed from the harem fantasies that reigned in his time. Fascinated by the country, its deserts and its inhabitants , going so far as to live like the Algerians, Gustave Guillaumet devoted his life and his painting to this country, breaking with the colorful and exotic representations of the time. The painting The Famine in Algeria, restored thanks to exceptional fundraising, was dictated by the events of the years 1865-1868, and well illustrates his knowledge of the country, in a manner that is at once demanding, sensitive and serious.