La mort de Bertrand du Guesclin (13 juillet 1380)

This painting by Nicolas-Guy Brenet, titled “The Death of Bertrand du Guesclin (13 July 1380),” depicts the final moments of the constable Bertrand du Guesclin, a major figure of the early Hundred Years’ War. The work shows the death of the French military leader on 13 July 1380 before Châteauneuf-de-Randon, while he was conducting the siege of the stronghold. The composition emphasizes the solemnity of the moment, the gravity of the military entourage, and the transformation of a wartime episode into a heroic and memorial scene. Painted in 1777, the work was commissioned by the comte d’Angiviller, director of the King’s Buildings, and belongs to eighteenth-century French history painting, which sought to glorify the great servants of the kingdom.