American artist in south of France wins top portrait prize

A Franco-American artist living in south-west France has won one of the world's leading portrait prizes after painting his neighbour for free.

Marc Dalessio, originally from Los Angeles and now based in the Gers village of Jégun, won first prize in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 at London's National Portrait Gallery with his oil painting Jean-Denis (2025).

The portrait depicts his friend and neighbour, Jean-Denis Corneille-Lierre, who lives across the street from Mr Dalessio's home and studio.

“Jean-Denis was absolutely thrilled when he heard his portrait had won,” said Mr Dalessio.

“Here in the village, everyone wants to talk to him about it.

“I was kidding with him that nobody knows who I am, but everyone recognises him from pictures of the portrait in the local press.”

The work was selected from 1,474 entries submitted from 63 countries, earning the artist £35,000 in prize money.

Free portrait led to award-winning painting

Mr Dalessio moved to Jégun in June 2021 and decided to offer free portraits to neighbours before accepting commissions so he could practise painting with an overhead light source.

“I had not considered Jean-Denis initially because he works long hours during the week in Toulouse, but I was chatting with him one day and he said he had always wanted to have his portrait done. We started almost right away,” he said.

The portrait was completed over around six sittings, with Mr Dalessio playing French podcasts while his neighbour posed.

After Jean-Denis took the finished painting home, Mr Dalessio decided to enter it into the competition. Rather than ask for it back, he painted a second version specifically for the award.

“With the second one, I just kept experimenting for hours. I worked on it without a reference, trying to make an idealised version,” he said.

The clothing and pose remained almost identical, but he reworked the subject's face.

Inspired by classical portraiture

Mr Dalessio said he drew inspiration from historic portrait painting traditions.

“If you go to the National Portrait Gallery, to the third floor, you have the English School. The idea of portraiture back then was that you are not supposed to paint people the way they are.

“You are supposed to take them and combine them with this platonic, ideal person. Nobody does that any more.

“The fashion today is for paintings to be accurate, so it was interesting playing around with this idea, which ended up appealing to the judges.”

About an hour before the winner was announced, organisers told Mr Dalessio the judges believed his work had a “timeless presence”.

“When I heard that, I kind of suspected that maybe I had won. Describing a painting as ‘timeless’ is generally a very good sign,” he said.

“It was very exciting, of course, to find out I actually was the winner.”

Despite the portrait award, Mr Dalessio said he is now focused on painting landscapes during the summer.

“My job is basically to go outside, be inspired and fall in love with the world, and spend hours or days capturing it on canvas.”