Technical information
- Title: Self-Portrait (20 May 1952)
- Date: 1952
- Technique: Ink on paper
- Dimensions: Unknown
- Location: Unknown
Biographical / historical context
This sheet is a monochrome portrait, drawn in line and hatching on a paper support that has slightly yellowed, with folds and handling marks visible. The handwritten signature and the date “20 May 1952” appear at lower right, providing a precise chronological anchor. The dimensions are not recorded at this stage and the current location is given as unknown.
Dated 1952, this self-portrait belongs to a moment when Breuillaud favours direct figuration, without setting, concentrated on essentials: presence. The choice of black and white, the apparent speed of execution, and the decision to leave a large expanse of paper breathing suggest an exercise in synthesis rather than a search for photographic likeness. It is less a matter of “describing” himself than of constructing himself in forms—through planes, angles, and values.
Formal / stylistic description
The face occupies almost the entire sheet, tightly framed, as if caught at close range. The head is shown three-quarter view, slightly turned, with an accepted asymmetry: the left eye is emphasised by a large circle suggesting the rim of spectacles or a monocle—a strong graphic motif that immediately structures the reading. The nose is treated as a ridge, almost architectural, through a network of triangular shadows. The mouth is closed and drawn with restraint: a taut line set into a strongly built chin. The beard area and lower face become denser through cross-hatching; the neck prolongs this energy with an even more insistent mesh, as if the black matter “holds” the head. The hair is rendered in dark masses, both disciplined and nervous, alternating compact blacks with more open passages. The background remains largely blank: it is the paper, not a setting, that forms the field.
Composition relies on a clear opposition between a lively contour line—sometimes deliberately discontinuous—that cuts out the face and ear, and modelling by hatching that produces light and, above all, depth. Breuillaud uses hatching as “planes”: it does not simply shade, but breaks the form into facets. Directions vary (oblique, crossed, parallel), giving the face a faceted structure. The method brings the self-portrait close to a built, almost sculptural portrait, where light is not a naturalistic effect but an architectural tool. The large circle around the left eye acts as a pivot: it balances the dark mass of the forehead and temple and reinforces the sense of a face seen through a sign, as if the artist asserts identity as much through an optical accessory as through features.
The line is at once rapid and controlled. The “handwriting” remains visible: some hatches are brief, almost scratched; others form more patient fields, notably in the shadows of the face. A few long lines (shoulder, cranial contour) give breathing space and prevent the image from closing in. This alternation creates rhythm, moving from nerve (tense, angular hatching) to calm (bare paper, contour curves). The resulting image is both severe and alive, conveying inner presence rather than pose.
Expression is contained—no smile, no anecdote—yet intensity arises from the contrast between a gaze captured and “held” by the eye-circle, and a mouth reduced to a graphic decision, almost a restraint. The tight, frontal framing strengthens the impression of a calm confrontation with oneself.
The sheet shows ageing (tone, folds). These marks do not hinder readability; on the contrary, they recall the workshop character and immediacy of a self-portrait likely made as an exercise in presence and pictorial calibration.
Comparative analysis / related works
Through the geometric simplification of the face, the use of hatching as modelling, and the close framing, this sheet belongs to Breuillaud’s graphic research in the early 1950s, where he confronts a Cubist legacy with a more nervous and expressive line.
Justification of dating and attribution
Several elements support a firm attribution: a consistent signature, a precise date written on the drawing, and stylistic coherence—construction by planes, expressive hatching, economy of means, and the primacy of line.
The date “20 May 1952” is a particularly solid documentary marker, making this sheet a useful milestone for situating Breuillaud’s graphic manner at the beginning of the 1950s.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Provenance, exhibitions and publications: not documented to date.
© Bruno Restout - Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud