Provençal Landscape

Technical information

Title : Provençal Landscape
Date : 1950
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 54 × 65 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

This work lies at the heart of the PR2 cycle, the moment when Breuillaud intensifies the construction of landscape through facets in order to express not only form, but also the energetic density of Provence.

At the dawn of the 1950s, his search for monumentality passes through colour: the artist juxtaposes vigorous patches and saturated accords to make the mountain, olive trees and ground “hold” together as a single pictorial organism.

The painting illustrates this ambition for a reconstructed landscape, where traditional space gives way to a field of forces.

Formal / stylistic description

The composition is compact: masses interlock and depth is built by strata rather than by perspectival recession. A vertical cypress on the right sets the rhythm and stabilises the whole against the movement of the planes.

Foliage unfolds in green and bluish facets; the ground, broadly ochre, is animated by orange passages and violet counterpoints. The mountain is treated in large angular fields, reinforcing the constructive tension.

The vibrating effect comes from the juxtaposition of uneven planes and visible brushwork. The painted signature, clearly legible at lower left, contributes to the work’s material anchoring.

Comparative analysis / related works

More massive and frontal than PR2-1950-001, this landscape pushes further the density of planes and the saturation of accords.

Compared with PR2-1950-002, it appears more “closed” and concentrated, while the modular logic remains less schematic than in the small-format PR2-1950-004.

It prepares the chromatic and constructive grammar of works in which Breuillaud will combine this fragmentation with more narrative motifs (the olive-grove cycles and harvest scenes).

Justification of dating and attribution

The palette (warm ochres, clear greens, broken violets), the structure in interlocking blocks, and the level of partial abstraction are characteristic of the year 1950, before the more radical accents observed after 1951.

The attribution to André Breuillaud is reinforced by the visible signature and by stylistic coherence with PR2 landscapes of the same year (brushwork in short units, faceting of the olive trees, construction by strata).

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection.