Untitled (c. 1941)

Technical information

• Title : Untitled
• Date : c. 1941
• Technique : Oil on canvas
• Dimensions : 32 × 55 cm
• Location : Private collection*

Biographical / historical context

Made in 1941, this work belongs to a period in which Breuillaud alternated Provençal landscapes with figure scenes. In the wartime context, formats were often modest and subjects favoured nearby motifs: walks, outdoor leisure, rustic or idyllic scenes—sometimes reconstructed from memory rather than observed directly.

This open‑air composition draws on an “Arcadian” vein already present in his work: the bodies are not treated as an academic studio subject, but as figures integrated into the landscape, on a par with trees, shadows, and the depth of the ground.

Formal / stylistic description

The scene is structured by the monumentality of three trees with powerful trunks; their branching network forms a dark vault that frames the field of vision. On the right, a seated couple stands out through simplified volumes and light colour areas; on the left, two female figures in swimsuits, seen from behind, introduce a second, quieter presence, functioning as a counterpoint.

The background opens onto a clearing where other silhouettes, barely sketched, suggest a round dance or a game. The pictorial matter remains light: supple contours, modelling reduced to a few values, and brush passages that allow the support to breathe. The palette is dominated by deep greens, muted blues, and ochres, punctuated by pinks and whites that catch the light on bodies and on parts of the ground.

The eye circulates along diagonals: from the left group toward the couple on the right, then into the background, before returning to the foreground via the shadows and the variations of the meadow.

Comparative analysis / related works

The work relates to other outdoor scenes by the artist through its contrast between large dark masses (the trees) and light accents (skin, fabrics), and through its economy of detail in favour of overall legibility. In spirit, it recalls studies of figures integrated into landscape rather than isolated nudes: Breuillaud privileges the rhythm of silhouettes and the balance of planes.

Within the 1940s corpus, it also dialogues with his landscapes built on broad diagonals and chromatic planes: the same simplification of volumes, the same attention to the counterpoint of shadow and light, and the same taste for “inhabited” scenes in which human presence provides scale and animates space.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1941 is compatible with the handling: drawing dissolved into brushwork, silhouettes treated as coloured masses, and a search for synthesis between construction and spontaneity. The attribution to André Breuillaud is supported by stylistic constants (structuring trees, modulated greens and ochres, figures sketched yet firmly placed) and by the presence of a painted signature at the lower left.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection*.