AB-MP3-1964-010 — Vase of Flowers (1964)

Technical information

Title: Vase of Flowers
Date: 1964
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 46 × 38 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1964, at the heart of an especially dense phase of the Plastic Mutation (MP3), Breuillaud explores semi-translucent envelopes, inner forms and organic hybridisations that will prepare the developments of 1965–1967.

Within this high-tension context, he rarely allows himself a figurative breath by returning to a simple, immediately legible motif: a bouquet of flowers. The painting belongs to these precious interludes, in which the brushwork becomes more direct and more joyful without renouncing the maturity already acquired.

The provenance noted in the file—linked to Claude Bougeard, a close friend and supporter—underscores this intimate dimension: less a theoretical detour than a moment of pictorial freedom.

Formal / stylistic description

Against a light, gently clouded ground, a generous bouquet rises from a rounded vase placed low in the composition.

The corollas, handled in lively touches, form a teeming mass dominated by reds, pinks, yellows and violets, punctuated by lighter accents.

The touch is supple and breathing; contours remain open, letting colour build form more than linear drawing.

The paint, laid in light yet vibrant impastos, catches the light and gives the bouquet a warm, almost affective vibration.

The vase, blue-green and slightly milky, stabilises the ensemble without insisting on optical description: it provides a base for the vegetal surge and contributes to the colour balance between freshness and brilliance.

Comparative analysis / related works

This canvas is closer to the rare still lifes and earlier bouquets in the corpus than to the strictly contemporary MP3 research: it reprises neither membranes, ocular motifs nor internal meshes.

It functions as a “breath” within the production: a punctual return to the tradition of the bouquet, reinvested with a sure handling, a saturated palette and an openness of contour that belongs to the maturity of the 1960s.

In relation to the Bouquet on a Blue Background from the same year, it opts for a more luminous and open atmosphere, where the clarity of the ground favours a more immediate reading and a stronger sense of space.

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1964 dating rests on the overall coherence of materials, signature and manner, as well as on the provenance indications preserved in the file.

The pictorial vocabulary—frank palette, lively touch, non-rigidified contours, and a clear hierarchy between vase and floral mass—corresponds to a moment when Breuillaud authorises an isolated figurative return on the margins of the MP3 organic programme.

The work’s atypical position within the series, far from weakening the attribution, reinforces the idea of a deliberate and assumed interlude in 1964.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Provenance: Claude Bougeard.