Goursac at night – tribute to Magritte

In early June, I spent a week photographing (and staying in!) the beautiful 18th century chateau that is Goursac. Living in a converted barn across a beautiful Lime-tree-lined lawn is Betrand Davezac, whose family bought the chateau when he was a boy. An art historian, he abandoned his own painting at 16, and his adult life was spent almost entirely in the US, where he was curator to a number of collections, including Houston’s Menil Collection. Within the Collection, there are a number of paintings by Rene Magritte, and I’m a fan. A number of paintings by the artist which I find particularly intriguing are of a large house at night, with yellow lamp-lit windows, including ‘Fin du Monde’. ‘L’Empire des Lumieres’ (1954) depicts what appears to be a nighttime scene of a house, but with a daytime blue sky above. Wondering around the delicious cricket-chirp-filled Goursac gardens at night, when I tore my gaze from the millions of stars, I noticed that the chateau had a similar feel to the Magritte images, and I wanted to create a Magritte- and Betrand-inspired image of the place. Below are a couple of my favourites, as well as a portrait of the amazing Betrand Davezac on his drive. Many more pictures of Goursac to come, but in the meantime these will have to do! I am really happy with the way the night images turned out, and they have not been manipulated to improve in post-processing – what you see is what I saw on that summer night.

Oxford photographer