Technical information
- Title : Moonlit Mirage
- Date : 1973
- Technique : Oil on paper
- Dimensions : 33 × 41 cm
- Location : Private collection
Biographical / historical context
In 1973, Breuillaud stabilises his “cosmic blue” while modulating its registers: alongside the major cycles of spherical entities appear medium formats of a more atmospheric kind, worked as visions. In Vence, these studies take the form of observed scenes, as if filtered through a mental film, in which light, matter, and beings are tested within the same vibration. Moonlit Mirage belongs to this strand: a restrained apparition, more contemplative than dramatic, that organises the world from a halo and a horizon line.
Formal / stylistic description
The space is ordered by a gradient of light: a darker, marsh-like lower zone of deep blues and muted greens opens toward an upper register brightened by a pale, almost lunar yellow. In the centre and upper part, luminous discs are surrounded by halos, like organic stars, while nervous filaments draw their edges and link the forms together.
On this stage, hybrid figures—vertical or curved—stand at the boundary between vegetal and anthropomorphic. Some rise as slender columns; others condense into thicker masses; and a large being to the right, carried by a disc, seems to dominate the whole as a tutelary presence. The paint, thin and matte, lets the paper grain show through and accumulates glazes that make the transitions vibrate.
Comparative analysis / related works
The atmospheric construction and the yellow-white / night-blue polarity place the work within the CCL cycle, before the affirmation of the full membranes associated with 1974. Compared to the tighter visions of 1972, the scene here opens up and regains a landscape-like breathing space without tipping into description: the horizon remains a threshold, and the figures remain apparitions.
The presence of spiral spheres and halos, noted in the documentation, further anchors the sheet in the explorations of 1973, in which the star becomes at once a light source, a centre of attraction, and an organism.
Justification of dating and attribution
The 1973 dating is consistent with the chromatic accord between lunar yellows and nocturnal blues, and with the installation of an atmospheric stage still devoid of the dense membranes of the following years. The paper support and the matter built from thin layers and superimposed glazes correspond to works on paper from this moment, while the Vence studio context mentioned in the documentation aligns with the work’s luminous tonality.
The reproduction, title, and dating recorded in the catalogue of Michelle Philippon (1992) further support both the attribution and the chronology.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection. Reproduced, titled, and dated in the catalogue of Michelle Philippon (1992).
© Bruno Restout — Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud