AB-MP2-1958-004 — Vines in Autumn (II) (1958)

Technical information

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

Biographical / historical context

Second variation in the series, Vines in Autumn (II) confirms in 1958 Breuillaud’s interest in an iconography reduced to essentials: the vine becomes a system of axes, knots and chromatic fields in which the season is translated into relationships of tone.

The painting extends the 1957 research on segmented ribbons, but reconfigures it in a more “landscape” manner: the framework is no longer only a formal game; it evokes ground, rows, circulation and spatial markers.

Formal / stylistic description

Vertical and oblique forms structure the surface like uprights and crosspieces, while rounded masses (reds, oranges, blues) insert themselves, recalling clusters or vegetal nodes. Space is organised through overlapping planes, some more transparent, others denser.

The palette favours nuanced greens and blues, balanced by oranges, pinks and yellows that provide points of warmth. Contours remain supple: forms partially merge, leaving breathing spaces where the ground participates in the structure.

The paint is worked through reprises and rubbings, giving transitions a vibrating quality. The whole reads as a synthesis: a landscape “felt” rather than described, held in balance between construction and fluidity.

Comparative analysis / related works

Compared with Vines in Autumn (I), this second version places greater emphasis on axes and intervals: the composition seems more open, less compact, and allows vertical breathing spaces that recall rows.

Together the two paintings confirm a stage where Breuillaud brings abstraction and motif closer: the arcs and ribbons inherited from 1957 are transformed into signs of landscape.

This evolution foreshadows later series in which the artist stabilises recurring structures (thresholds, axes, crossings) in the service of identifiable themes.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating to 1958 is consistent with its place within the Vines in Autumn series and with the characteristic palette (warm/cool contrasts, seasonal tonalities) that appears in other works from the same moment.

The signature is visible on the reproduction. Attribution is supported by coherence of handling and formal vocabulary with the 1958 corpus: construction through overlapping planes, supple contours, and colour modulated in layers.