Olive Harvesting at Caromb (I)

Technical information

Title : Olive Harvesting at Caromb (I)
Date : 1950
Technique : Oil on canvas (HST)
Dimensions : 38 × 61 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1950, the olive harvest became one of Breuillaud’s major “collective” motifs: the Provençal scene offers a way of shaping a rhythm of gestures, more than a simple record.

Caromb appears here as a privileged terrain: the artist observes agricultural labour, tools, baskets and draught animals, then reformulates them in a post‑Cubist idiom in which colour constructs the scene.

This variant (I) introduces, within the same space, the idea of carting (wheels), animal presence and circulation, as if the harvest opened onto a small rural “mechanism”.

Formal / stylistic description

A highly constructed horizontal composition: orange ground, modular green masses at centre, deep blue sky. A network of sinuous branches (ochres and violets) crosses the upper part of the image and serves as a framework.

Several poles articulate the scene: at left, a yellow circular form (basket / tub / large hamper) and a leaning silhouette; at centre, a blue figure stands out through an ascending movement (raised arms), as a gestural translation of picking.

At right, a dark animal silhouette (horse or mule) and a large structured disk (wheel) recall carting. A darker vertical figure occupies the right foreground, reinforcing depth through overlap.

Volumes are cut into facets and flat planes, with dark outlines: the motif remains legible, yet deliberately stylised, as if “assembled” from fragments.

Comparative analysis / related works

The painting forms a system with AB‑PR2‑1950‑013 (Cueillettes II): the same theme, but here more “staged” by signs of movement (wheels / animal), whereas 013 emphasises the grove and gestures at the foot of the trees.

It also relates to AB‑PR2‑1950‑011 (Untitled), which seems to condense the same linear energy and the same palette (deep blues, oranges, greens), with an even more reduced level of narration.

Within the PR2 corpus, this version (I) sits between more monumental compositions (for example those centred on carting, such as AB‑PR2‑1950‑008 “The Cart”) and more decorative variants: it privileges overall balance and gestural coherence.

It can be regarded as one of the most “held” variants of the theme: neither too segmented (at the risk of dissolving the motif), nor too figurative (at the risk of weakening the construction).

Justification of dating and attribution

The 1950 date is confirmed by the PR2 syntax: marked segmentation, schematic silhouettes, a strongly contrasted warm/cool palette, and the importance of lines of force (branches, diagonals, arcs).

The subject of harvesting is still treated in a relatively legible way, which places the work before the more systematic and sometimes more abstract solutions of 1951.

Attribution to André Breuillaud is supported by stylistic coherence: fusion of figure and landscape, economy of detail, and construction of space through modular planes.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Current location: private collection.