Technical information
- Title : Rue Lepic Market (II)
- Date : 1951
- Technique : Oil on canvas
- Dimensions : 55 × 46 cm
- Location : Unknown
Biographical / historical context
This variant, titled Rue Lepic Market (II), testifies to the persistence of the motif in Breuillaud’s work in 1951. It belongs to the same desire to transpose an everyday scene into an arrangement of planes, in which market activity becomes a pretext for rigorous construction.
Formal / stylistic description
The composition favours contrasts of masses and a block-like organisation, to the detriment of anecdotal description. Figures and stall elements are treated as interlocking volumes, animated by oblique force-lines and by an alternation of dark and light zones.
The handling insists on the armature of the motif, as if the scene were reduced to its geometric skeleton.
Comparative analysis / related works
The work naturally invites comparison with Rue Lepic Market of the same year: the same principles of synthesis between silhouettes and setting, and the same search for a rhythm of planes. This version, however, appears to push simplification further and to heighten the dominance of masses, making it a more structural study.
Justification of dating and attribution
The dating to 1951 is motivated by its explicit belonging to the “Rue Lepic” cycle and by its stylistic accord with other market scenes of that period. The attribution to André Breuillaud is retained on the basis of this coherent plastic language, in the absence of any contradictory element in the available reproduction.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Location not recorded.
© Bruno Restout — Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud