Oxen Ploughing in the Creuse

Technical information

Title : Oxen Ploughing in the Creuse
Date : c. 1940
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 38 × 55 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

In 1940, Breuillaud divided his time between Paris, Provence, and regular stays in the Creuse, a region whose agricultural landscapes he particularly valued. This transitional moment—between the end of the GU phase and the beginning of PG2—marks a return to essential rural subjects: ploughing, draft teams, carts, and scenes of work.

The motif of ploughing, recurrent in his late-1930s output, here becomes a structuring theme: it magnifies the peasant gesture, focuses on the rhythm of bodies, and seeks to grant the rural world a monumental dignity at a time of historical uncertainty.

Formal / stylistic description

The scene is organised in broad horizontal bands that draw the eye toward the horizon. In the foreground, a pale, golden ground—slightly tinged with pink—is animated by long, fluid strokes. The central, darker register forms the freshly turned furrow, massive and compact, and acts as the narrative axis of the composition.

Four draught oxen advance in procession, rendered in a dense yet supple paint; their movement is suggested by the chaining of volumes and a network of oblique lines. Behind the plough, the peasant’s figure—dark, inclined—conveys effort and the continuity of the action.

On the right, large spiral haystacks introduce a counter‑rhythm and break the strict horizontality. The background opens onto bluish hills and a heavy sky, where greys and blues overlap with pinkish strata, producing the diffuse light typical of Creuse landscapes.

The handling is more fused than in the contemporary Provençal landscapes: transitions are softer and the atmosphere more harmonised. One nevertheless finds a simplification of masses and a tension between graphic structure and naturalism, characteristic of the developments around 1940.

Comparative analysis / related works

This painting belongs to the small group of agricultural scenes from the late 1930s and early 1940s. Like other compositions centred on draught oxen, it shows an interest in the animals’ monumentality and in a restrained narration of the peasant gesture.

In comparison with the Provençal landscapes of 1940, the shift is clear: the palette is gentler, the construction more horizontal, and the relationship to reality more direct. The simplification of planes and the stylisation of silhouettes nonetheless participate in the same movement toward formal synthesis.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating “c. 1940” accords with the calm horizontal construction and the atmospheric blue‑grey range, as well as with the progressive simplification of masses observed at the beginning of the PG2 period. The form of the haystacks and the modelling—less expressionistic than in certain works of 1939—logically place the canvas around the 1940 turning point.

Stylistic coherence with the known visual record supports this dating with a good degree of certainty.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Location: Private collection.