Technical information
- Title : Landscape with Ochre Soils
- Date : c. 1950
- Technique : Oil on canvas
- Dimensions : 38 × 46 cm
- Location : Private collection
Biographical / historical context
This landscape belongs to the sub‑group of “ochre soils” that Breuillaud painted around Caromb and the Ventoux.
The terraced zone is recognizable: contrasts between soils and cultivation become ideal material for his polyhedral vocabulary. Here we are at the heart of the PR2 dynamic—a Provençal landscape observed, then simplified, reorganized, and structured like a solar mosaic.
Formal / stylistic description
A very warm red‑ochre dominance; hills segmented into slanting diagonals.
Olive trees are reduced to rounded yet stylized masses; a central path or terrace organizes the planes.
The pale blue sky is reduced to a single band, like a breath of space.
The painting appears more luminous than PR2-1950-016 and less saturated than PR2-1950-003; the ochres give the whole a strongly local vibration, typical of the Comtat Venaissin soils.
Comparative analysis / related works
Warmer than PR2-1950-014 and more fluid than PR2-1950-016, the work foreshadows certain yellow‑ochre landscapes of 1951 while remaining fully PR2 in its simple ordering of facets. It can be read as a pivot between the “green” landscapes (PR2-1950-014, PR2-1950-016) and more flamboyant solutions (PR2-1950-015, PR2-1950-018).
Justification of dating and attribution
Segmentation that is firm yet still readable, together with the balance between observation and reconstruction by planes, points to 1950.
The warm palette, typical of the autumn 1950 series, and the absence of multi-fragmentation (more characteristic of 1951–1952) support a circa‑1950 dating and the attribution to André Breuillaud.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection.
© Bruno Restout - Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud