AB-GU-1940-008 — Rabeyrette Farm (I) (1940)

Technical information

Title : Rabeyrette Farm (I)
Date : 1940
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 54 × 73 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

The identification of Rabeyrette Farm places this canvas within a group of three depictions of the same site, now brought together under the titles Rabeyrette Farm (I), (II) and (III), all dated 1940. The Graveyron, with its two distinctive summits, provides their common topographical landmark. Identifying the location thus sheds new light on a work previously known by the descriptive title Terre d’ocre (Ochre Earth).

The interest of this group lies in the reworking of a familiar motif through noticeably different compositional arrangements. The buildings, trees, cultivated plots and hills are not simply repeated: their proportions within the image, their overlapping relationships and their treatment in colour all vary. This first version favours an expansive view of the property. The farm forms part of an agricultural landscape whose interconnections Breuillaud makes perceptible, from the crops in the foreground to the distant slopes.

Formal / stylistic description

The horizontal format accommodates a succession of broadly extended planes. In the foreground, a band of pinkish-orange earth is crossed by curving bluish or brown marks suggesting vine stocks or pruned plants. Their irregular arrangement animates the surface without offering a detailed account of the crops. This warm-toned zone forms a visual threshold beyond which stretch green areas punctuated by trees.

The farm stands to the left of centre. Its light-coloured volumes, gently sloping roofs and the dark entrance to an outbuilding form a compact architectural nucleus, relatively modest in scale within the composition as a whole. The pale ochre façades stand out against the surrounding greens; a few openings suffice to suggest habitation, although no human figure is depicted.

Several trees, spread across the middle ground, occupy the intermediate plane. Their winding trunks and crowns of russet, greyish and greenish tones establish a rhythm that carries the eye from one side to the other. Unlike the two other versions, no single tree dominates the foreground. The spaces between the vegetal silhouettes contribute as much as the masses themselves to the openness of the landscape.

To the right of the farm, a pale path traces an ascending curve across the hillside. It introduces a movement into depth that moderates the horizontal succession of the fields. Dark vertical accents, suggestive of cypresses, punctuate this movement.

The Graveyron dominates the background. Its two summits stand out against a blue-green sky, while its slopes are simplified into areas of pink, violet and deep blue. The affinity between the pinks of the foreground and those of the hills brings chromatically closer areas that are in fact far apart. Depth is therefore expressed not only through the diminishing scale of motifs but also through a balance between chromatic continuity and the separation of planes.

Comparative analysis / related works

Comparison with Rabeyrette Farm (II), AB-GU-1940-009, and Rabeyrette Farm (III), AB-GU-1940-010, brings out the more panoramic character of this version. The farm appears farther away, the trees are more widely spaced, and the band of cultivated land in the foreground retains a significant degree of independence.

In version II, the large olive tree just right of centre becomes a pivot around which the ground, buildings and distant landscape are organised. In version III, that role is further emphasised by the breadth of the foliage, which partly conceals the farm. Here, by contrast, the composition remains distributed among several focal points: the light-coloured architecture, the sequence of trees, the path and the twin summits of the Graveyron.

The colour range also appears more closely integrated. Pinks, mauves and greens echo one another throughout the composition, whereas version II more strongly asserts the contrast between warm earth and cool vegetation, and version III concentrates the light on particular façades. These nuances distinguish three pictorial balances; they are not sufficient to identify different times of day or seasons.

This first view thus conveys less a confrontation between a tree and a farm than the continuity of a cultivated landscape. Its distinctive character lies in the attention paid to the relationships among the various components of the scene.

Justification of dating and attribution

The reference date is now 1940, in accordance with the new information supplied to the catalogue and the grouping of the three views of Rabeyrette Farm. The previous dating to 1939 has been abandoned. The similarity of the site and affinities in handling support this association, without in themselves proving that the works were painted at the same time.

The simplification of the built volumes, the supple tree trunks, the succession of terrain planes and the balance between warm and cool colours are consistent with the other two works. The signature visible at lower right constitutes further evidence in support of the attribution. No date is legible in the reproduction.

The Roman numerals distinguish the three versions within the catalogue; they do not indicate an established sequence of execution.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection.

Formerly catalogued as AB-GU-1939-002, under the title Terre d’ocre (Ochre Earth) and dated 1939. New identifier: AB-GU-1940-008.

Exhibitions and publications: not specified in the documentation provided.