AB-PR1-1950-010 — Christ on the Cross (1950)

Technical details

Title : Christ on the Cross
Date : 1950
Technique : Oil on panel
Dimensions : 49 × 34 cm
Location : Private collection*

Biographical / historical context

Within the corpus currently known, 1950 marks a singular moment: here Breuillaud approaches an explicitly sacred subject, whereas his usual themes favour the profane figure, choreographic scenes or allegorical compositions.

The work belongs to the context of the Salon d’Art Sacré organised at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, presented from 29 November 1950 to 21 January 1951 under the patronage of Jean Cassou, the museum’s chief curator.

This participation—apparently isolated—coincides with a period when many modern artists were invited to renew religious iconography: not through a return to academicism, but through a search for monumentality and a formal language suited to the time. For Breuillaud, the Crucified figure seems to offer a field of experimentation in which the angular vocabulary of the late 1940s is placed at the service of a frontal, compressed, almost architectured image.

Formal / stylistic description

The scene fills the vertical format, with little sense of depth: a thick dark-green cross structures the whole along a central axis. The Christ, very elongated, is built from facets of yellows, ivories and ochres outlined in brown; the arms form a wide V, while the torso and hips break into sharp angles. A red-orange perizoma introduces a warm accent at the lower centre of the figure.

Around this core, the setting and witnesses unfold like a fragmented “stained glass”: a large ultramarine-and-violet field, shaped like an arch or mandorla, isolates the cross, while the borders splinter into triangular shards of orange and deep browns. On the left, a large blue-draped figure folds in on itself as if overcome by grief; on the right, a red-brown silhouette, with a schematic face and greenish headgear, turns towards the cross. At the bottom of the composition, other human forms—a dark kneeling figure and an ochre figure with a bent arm—reinforce the sense of a circle of lamentation.

The paint handling favours nervous flat areas and visible rework, with transitions sometimes rubbed between coloured planes. The hot/cold contrasts (deep blues against incandescent oranges) intensify the drama without resorting to naturalistic chiaroscuro. The signature “Breuillaud” is visible at the lower right of the panel.

Comparative analysis / related works

Through its rhythm of diagonals and the segmentation of bodies, Christ on the Cross extends the choreographic compositions and “Sarabandes” of the 1947–1949 PR1 period: the same internal dynamism, the same angular silhouettes, and the same tension between dominant verticals and oblique movements.

The distribution of the witnesses at the periphery, in coloured planes and broken profiles, also recalls the procession-like figures of 1948, where walking and gathering are already translated into an almost liturgical syntax.

Yet the work differs through absolute frontality and an economy of signs oriented towards monumentality: the cross becomes a true plastic “pillar”, and the central figure condenses PR1’s formal research into a single, unified image. The more radical fragmentation of the background tends towards an architectural abstraction that goes beyond mere décor and participates directly in the dramatic expression of the subject.

Justification of dating and attribution

The work’s inclusion in the Salon d’Art Sacré 1950–1951 catalogue provides a terminus ante quem and supports a date in 1950, immediately prior to the opening of the exhibition.

Stylistically, the angular geometrisation of anatomies, the assertive brown contours, and the saturated palette dominated by blues and oranges correspond to Breuillaud’s research at the hinge of 1948–1951 (PR1 period). The visible signature is compatible with an attribution to the artist. As no date is legible on the front, the dating rests on this documentary framework and on formal coherence.

Associated documentation mentions trials or variations on the reverse; in the absence of an image of the back in the present file, this remains a secondary indication to be confirmed by direct examination.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Current provenance: private collection.

Exhibition: Salon d’Art Sacré — Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, 29 November 1950 – 21 January 1951.

Publications: Salon catalogue (preface by Jean Cassou); reference to be specified in *Art Sacré – œuvres des XIXe et XXe siècles* (MAM), inventory number / entry to be determined.