The Card Players (1941)

Technical information

• Title : The Card Players
• Date : 1941
• Technique : Gouache and ink on paper
• Dimensions : 50 × 65 cm
• Location : Private collection*

Biographical / historical context

In 1941, Breuillaud regularly practised gouache and mixed techniques on paper, well suited to rapid, mobile work. In the wartime context, such lightweight supports made it possible to capture everyday scenes—modest interiors, cafés, conversations—or to reconstruct their atmosphere imaginatively.

The theme of card players belongs to a popular iconography often associated with village sociability. For Breuillaud, it becomes a pretext for studying attitudes and staging silent concentration.

Formal / stylistic description

Three male figures are gathered around a table seen three‑quarters on. The composition favours proximity: bodies overlap, hats and shoulders create a relief of volumes, while the tabletop forms a stabilising horizontal plane.

The handling combines coloured washes with more opaque highlights: clothing is indicated by broad grey‑blue and dark‑green areas, punctuated by warm notes (the table’s brown‑red, and a few orange accents on faces and hands). The drawing is free and nervous, specifying profiles, fingers, and certain folds without seeking detailed finish.

The background remains deliberately undefined, as if dissolved in a beige‑pink light. This reserve gives the scene an intimate quality: everything concentrates on the game, the table, and the exchange of glances.

Comparative analysis / related works

This gouache belongs to Breuillaud’s “genre scenes”, where forms are simplified in favour of character. One finds the same economy of means as in his figure studies: supple contours, limited values, and an emphasis on gesture (hands resting, cards held, the observer’s posture).

The subject also invites comparison with his group compositions: rather than narrating, Breuillaud organises a balance of masses and directions, making the silhouettes converse through the diagonal of arms and the line of the table.

Justification of dating and attribution

The date 1941 accords with the use of mixed techniques on paper and with a highly synthetic handling focused on the expression of attitudes. The attribution to André Breuillaud is consistent with his way of building faces through a few coloured touches and a supple line; a signature seems visible at the lower right, reinforcing this attribution.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection*.