The Alpilles at Saint-Rémy (1940)

Technical information

• Title : The Alpilles at Saint-Rémy
• Date : 1940
• Technique : Oil on panel
• Dimensions : 33 × 41 cm
• Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

For Breuillaud, 1940 was a pivotal year both biographically and stylistically. In a context of war and displacement, he intensified his stays in Provence and pursued a synthesis in which colour‑matter and the construction of landscape take precedence over naturalistic observation.

The Alpilles massif, around Saint‑Rémy‑de‑Provence, became a true pictorial laboratory. Its angular ridges, hard light, and ochre soils provided an ideal motif for a structured painting, built on dynamic planes and oblique rhythms.

Formal / stylistic description

Depth is constructed through a succession of ascending planes: the ground, an olive‑grove zone, and the line of the Alpilles interlock in a deliberately compressed perspective. The foreground is treated in incandescent red, almost mineral, with thick, striated paint that gives the terrain a vivid energy.

At the centre, the olive trees are reduced to angular masses—green, bluish, and mauve shards—replacing botanical description with rhythmic organisation. In the distance, the massif is cut in a graphic manner; its dark crests stand out sharply against an orange sky painted in broad, vibrating areas.

The palette pushes toward burnt ochres and highly saturated reds, counterbalanced by cool greens, deep blues, and high‑key yellows. The brushwork is broad, sometimes bevelled, heightening an expressive tension that seeks to extract the landscape’s energetic structure rather than illustrate it.

Comparative analysis / related works

The painting fits within the Provençal experiments of 1939–1941. It extends Breuillaud’s interest in landscapes constructed by masses and contrasts, while pushing further the nervousness of line and the simplification of forms.

The geometrisation of volumes and the emphasis on red earth anticipate more decisive choices in the PG2 group: extreme simplification of planes, chromatic intensification, and a tendency toward near‑abstraction of topography, without a complete break from the motif.

Justification of dating and attribution

The date 1940 is consistent with the red‑orange palette and the stylisation of the olive trees characteristic of the 1939–1941 transition. The angular drawing, compressed planes, and chromatic tension correspond to the exploratory phase that precedes the full assertion of the PG2 language.

The work is dated and situated in the book by Michelle Philippon devoted to Breuillaud (1992).

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Location: Private collection.

Publication: reproduced in Michelle Philippon (1992).