Landscape at Caromb (c. 1941)

Technical information

• Title : Landscape at Caromb
• Date : c. 1941
• Technique : Oil on canvas
• Dimensions : 33 × 41 cm
• Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

Caromb, at the foot of Mont Ventoux, appears regularly in Breuillaud’s work, offering motifs well suited to variation: russet roofs, vegetal masses, and bluish reliefs. In 1941, the artist refined a synthetic approach to landscape in which the legibility of planes takes precedence over descriptive detail.

This view belongs to a series of Provençal landscapes that, while remaining anchored in the motif, translate visual experience into a coloured, rhythmic construction.

Formal / stylistic description

The painting offers a slightly elevated viewpoint: in the foreground, bands of ground and hedges guide the eye toward a cluster of houses with pale façades. The village is treated in simple volumes, with a few dark openings for windows and doors. Beyond, the line of hills and the mass of Ventoux structure the background.

The palette combines light tones (beiges, ivories, pale pinks) with deep greens and blue-greys in the hills. Russet roofs and a few orange accents serve as points of intensity. Relatively broad brushwork organises space through nuanced planes: the hills are suggested by layered passages of colour that convey the vibration of air and distance.

The whole balances horizontals (the landscape bands) with occasional verticals (trees, cypresses), giving the composition a calm stability.

Comparative analysis / related works

This view of Caromb is close to Breuillaud’s landscapes in which village architecture becomes a pretext for staging planes: pale houses at the centre, a belt of subdued greens, then bluish hills. One finds his way of simplifying forms while preserving the luminous sensation of façades.

Compared with more sketch-like studies, the treatment here is more constructed: transitions between planes are more clearly articulated, and the chromatic range, though restrained, is enriched by subtle variations (mauves, greyed greens, ochres).

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1941 accords with the handling: synthesised volumes, a palette balanced between warm and cool tones, and reliefs treated in large masses. The attribution to André Breuillaud is supported by stylistic constants (construction by planes, houses rendered as pale blocks, vegetation in broad touches) and by the presence of a painted signature at the lower left.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection.

Condition: surface generally stable; minor edge wear possible.