Technical details
- Title : Village at Sunrise
- Date : 1950
- Technique : Oil on canvas
- Dimensions : 46 × 55 cm
- Location : Private collection
Biographical / historical context
In 1950, André Breuillaud accelerates the transformation of his pictorial language: the Provençal landscape, observed around Caromb, Beaumes-de-Venise and the foothills of Mont Ventoux, becomes a field of experimentation in which volumes fuse into coloured modules.
Morning light—raking and changeable—acts as a revealer: it leads the artist to construct space through interlocking planes rather than perspective, while preserving a figurative reading of the village.
This work belongs to the first PR2 sub-group: a figuration still legible, already driven by an assertive geometrisation that anticipates the move towards PR3 (1951–1952).
Formal / stylistic description
The painting shows a village seen from a slightly elevated viewpoint, structured by an alternation of roofs and vegetative masses. The architecture is simplified into blocks of ochres, oranges and violets, while the olive trees are treated as green and turquoise facets.
The construction privileges edges and breaks of plane: forms “fracture” space into plates, without recourse to descriptive curves. The sky and distant background, dark and deep, heighten the sense of relief by contrast with the illuminated zones.
The brushwork is short and dry, applied in small units, producing a tessellated effect that contributes to the surface energy characteristic of the years 1950–1951.
Comparative analysis / related works
Through its interlocking planes, the work belongs to the same continuum as PR2-1950-002 and PR2-1950-003, as well as the more modular experiments of PR2-1950-004.
It nevertheless stands out for a fresher palette and a more “morning” atmosphere—less saturated than PR2-1950-003—and for a more breathing structure than those compositions in which the motif densifies into an almost checkerboard.
This airy character makes it a useful marker for understanding the transition from still “open” landscapes to the more compact constructions of the second part of the PR2 cycle.
Justification of dating and attribution
The already clear polyhedral segmentation, the absence of curves inherited from PR1, and the translation of shadow through chromatic breaks correspond to the core of 1950, before the more radical fragmentation associated with PR3.
The attribution to André Breuillaud is maintained on the basis of stylistic coherence with the PR2 corpus (modular grammar, tessellated brushwork, ochre/green/blue accords) and the constructive logic typical of his Provençal practice at this date.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection. Earlier provenance, exhibitions and publications: information not communicated to date.
© Bruno Restout - Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud