Technical information
- Title: Composition with Trees
- Date: 1955
- Technique: Oil on paper
- Dimensions: 49 × 64 cm
- Location: Private collection*
Biographical / historical context
This sheet from 1955 belongs to a series of experiments in which Breuillaud translates landscape into a system of signs. The tree—no longer an isolated motif but a principle of branching—becomes an operator of composition, linking planes and articulating zones of colour.
The work stands at a transitional moment: the memory of landscape remains (horizon, clearing, trunks), yet representation withdraws behind a logic of structure, trajectories and superimpositions.
Formal / stylistic description
The colour field is organised on a saturated violet ground that unifies space and acts like a nocturne or mental backdrop. On this base, polygonal forms and broad bands (greens, blues, oranges) interlock in large layers, while darker lines draw branching networks and growth axes.
Within this mesh, several lighter oval or circular shapes function as luminous reserves. They do not describe specific objects; they establish points of attraction—clearings, moons, or openings through foliage.
Writing alternates between laid-in flats and incisive line: colour builds masses; line builds circulation. This duality gives the vegetal motif an almost cartographic dimension, where one reads less a scene than an energy plan.
Comparative analysis / related works
The sheet sits halfway between the still-structured landscapes of the early decade and more radical compositions in which the subject dissolves. Compared with narrative works (markets, interiors), it replaces figure with equivalents: trunk-axis, branch-curve, light-reserve.
Within the 1955 corpus, it resonates with biomorphic compositions and experiments on orange grounds: closed contours, tension between large fields and vein-like networks. Here, however, violet dominates, imposing nocturnal depth and stabilising contrasts.
It also anticipates later works in which linear mesh becomes a true network—an autonomous organic framework rather than descriptive branching.
Justification of dating and attribution
The date 1955 is confirmed by the signature and inscription on the work, and by stylistic coherence with this phase of structural recomposition. The combination of saturated ground, polygonal flats and schematic branching corresponds to Breuillaud’s mid-1950s experiments.
Attribution is secured by the handwriting: supple yet decisive contour, alternation of reserves and overlays, and the use of colour as constructive plane rather than modelling.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection*.
© Bruno Restout - Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud