AB-MP2-1958-003 — Vines in Autumn (I) (1958)

Technical information

Title: Vines in Autumn (I)
Date: 1958
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 × 73 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1958, Breuillaud continues the momentum of the MP2 cycle while reintroducing—through signs—a landscape motif: the vine. The theme does not return to description; it serves as a matrix for ordering rhythms, interlacings and colour relationships associated with the season.

In this series, autumn is treated as a chromatic state: contrasts between reds, oranges and ochres on one side, blues and greens on the other. The motif of rows, vines and ties is reduced to arcs, crossings and masses that structure space.

Formal / stylistic description

The composition combines large rounded forms with more angular segments, arranged like a network of signs under tension. A more assertive axis traverses the whole, creating a central articulation, while darker peripheral zones stabilise the field.

The palette alternates warm tones (oranges, reds, yellows) and cool tones (blues, greens), often separated by edges or subdued transitions. The paint shows a visible texture: superimpositions, reworkings and thicker passages give the surface a continuous vibration.

Halfway between the vegetal and the abstract, the forms suggest a condensed landscape: vines and ties become curves and crossings, without explicit perspective, but with a sense of depth created by overlapping planes.

Comparative analysis / related works

Compared with the 1957 compositions dominated by ribbons and pure segmentation, Vines in Autumn (I) makes the sign more stable: construction seems less improvised and more “set down,” like a schema of the motif.

The painting naturally compares with Vines in Autumn (II) (AB-MP2-1958-004), which proposes another solution: where (I) privileges a compact, centred synthesis, (II) develops more broadly the relationships between verticals, masses and intervals.

Within the corpus, this series constitutes an important transition point: the gains of constructive abstraction (planes, joints, rhythms) are put to the service of a landscape theme, without relinquishing the autonomy of painting.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1958 accords with the appearance, in the MP2 cycle, of works in which vegetal motif is explicitly named and transposed into signs. The “autumnal” palette and structuring through crossings confirm this moment.

The signature is visible on the reproduction. Attribution rests on stylistic coherence with the other 1958 canvases: the same articulation between arcs and planes, the same warm/cool contrasts, and the same way of building depth through overpainting.