AB-MP3-1959-001 — Untitled (c. 1959)

Technical information

Title: Untitled
Date: c. 1959
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 22 × 35 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

Around 1959, Breuillaud turns toward more concentrated compositions, in which the image condenses into a central nucleus and colour seems to enter into fusion. This untitled work (dated circa) can be read as a transitional moment: structure tightens, contours become more mobile, and the painting moves toward a “nebula” logic—an accumulation of suspended forms and colours.

The small format favours a more immediate, almost experimental writing, in which the artist tests balances of density and chromatic vibration. In this context, the work resembles less a “constructed” composition than a field experiment: how to hold flashes and overlays together without losing overall cohesion.

Formal / stylistic description

On a deep blue field, the composition gathers into a central mass made of warm touches and flats (oranges, reds, ochres), crossed by greens and more muted tones. The predominantly rounded forms overlap and cover one another, with some areas more opaque and others where colour becomes transparent.

Darker, sometimes sinuous lines underline certain edges and give the whole a swirling character. The calmer edges of the painting allow the blue ground to breathe, accentuating the effect of condensation at the centre.

The oil matter remains palpable: brushstrokes, rubbings and reprises indicate a construction by adjustments, as if the form were sought by reforming itself. Some zones are almost translucent, letting the ground rise through and reinforcing an impression of layered depth.

Comparative analysis / related works

Compared with the 1958 works in which verticality or a panel-like armature is still perceptible, this painting privileges a nucleus-based, more organic organisation.

By its principle of condensation and its coloured atmosphere, it is close to the “chromatic nebulae” made in 1959, while retaining a denser, more tactile handling in oil. It thus constitutes a painted equivalent of the pastel research of the same period: the same logic of cluster, overlays and inner flashes, but translated here into oily material.

Justification of dating and attribution

The signature is perceptible at lower left, but no date can be read on the reproduction. The dating “c. 1959” is motivated by its stylistic proximity to works of that year: atmospheric blue ground, central condensation, warm palette crossed by greens, and mobile contours announcing the nebula series.

Attribution rests on formal and technical coherence and on the work’s natural place within the 1958–1959 evolution. The mention “circa” signals the necessary caution in the absence of an autograph date, while acknowledging the strong compatibility with the 1959 corpus.