Technical information
- Title : Village at Sunset
- Date : 1975 (declared dating)
- Technique : Oil on panel
- Dimensions : 33 × 41 cm
- Location : Unknown
Biographical / historical context
Village at Sunset is a singular case within the corpus. Attributed and dated “1975” in the documentation (Michelle Philippon catalogue, 1992), it nonetheless presents a pictorial language that sharply contradicts Breuillaud’s mid-1970s research, then dominated by organic entanglements, membranes, hybridisations, and floating psychic visions.
The most rational hypothesis is that of an older painting reintroduced at a later date. Breuillaud sometimes kept works from earlier periods, then signed, titled, or reclassified them during later exhibitions or regroupings. In this scenario, 1975 would correspond less to the moment of execution than to a date of presentation, inventory, or listing.
Formal / stylistic description
The composition is fully geometrised: juxtaposed colour panels build a fragmented architecture, like a mosaic of façades, with flattened perspective and dark edges cutting through the field. The whole evokes a shattered Mediterranean village, treated in planes, with no intrusion of biomorphism.
The palette is frank and solar—pinks, vivid blues, oranges, emerald greens, soft violets—and points to a post-war modernism rather than the cooled or nocturnal ranges of 1975. Here there are no autonomous eyes, no floating mouths, no membranes: the painting privileges construction, the rhythm of rectangles, and a cubistising organisation that places it at a distance from post-1968 research.
Comparative analysis / related works
By its segmented structure, format, and chromatic range, the work shows clear affinities with earlier phases: fragmented landscapes of 1948–1953 (PR2 / PR3), coloured geometries of the early 1950s (PG2), or even preliminary panel constructions before the organic turn. The 33 × 41 cm format is moreover very typical of 1948–1955.
Comparison with works genuinely painted in 1975 (nocturnal entanglements, pale visions, diluted anatomies) underlines the total lack of stylistic continuity. Several explanations remain compatible with the documentation: late reintegration of an older painting, an inventory or presentation date, reuse of a support, or a catalogue anomaly.
Justification of dating and attribution
The documentary notice requires that the declared dating “1975” be retained (Michelle Philippon catalogue, 1992). However, formal analysis converges strongly toward an earlier execution, probably between 1950 and 1954: cubist vocabulary, panel construction, Matissean palette, and the complete absence of biomorphism and organic signs that dominate the 1970s corpus.
Attribution to Breuillaud remains plausible insofar as this type of construction logically fits within his pre-organic research. The critical point therefore concerns the creation date rather than the author: 1975 most likely indicates a date of reclassification, presentation, or inventory rather than execution.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Inventoried and reproduced in the Michelle Philippon catalogue (1992).
Current owner not identified (contact requested).
© Bruno Restout — Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud