AB-MP2-1957-006 — Untitled (c. 1957)

Technical information

Title: Untitled
Date: c. 1957
Technique: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 50 × 65 cm
Location: Private collection

Biographical / historical context

Alongside the oils of the MP2 cycle, in the mid-1950s Breuillaud produced works on paper (pastels, studies) in which he tested harmonies and rhythms more directly. These sheets often served as laboratories: they allowed him to try out a motif, a structure or an atmosphere before any possible transposition to canvas.

This untitled composition, dated around 1957, fits this experimental logic. A vegetal or wooded space is approached through masses and verticals, without anecdote, and with an economy of means that privileges sensation.

Formal / stylistic description

On a light ground, strokes and coloured areas overlap in translucent layers. The main forms are organised into vertical rises and bifurcations, evoking trunks, stems or branches, while more diffuse touches modulate the background.

The range favours greens, yellows and ochres, with cooler passages (bluish tones) and darker highlights that emphasise certain axes. Through rubbing and reworking, the pastel produces soft edges and nuanced transitions, giving the whole an atmospheric quality.

Comparative analysis / related works

Compared with contemporary oils (for instance Barbarian or Red Landscape), the sheet is built more lightly: the “joint” and facet give way to superimpositions and transparencies. Form is defined less by cutting than by gradual emergence.

Conversely, the vocabulary of verticals and bifurcations anticipates the 1958 researches around Vines in Autumn, where vegetal motif is synthesised into signs—rows, vines, structures. Here those signs remain open and floating, like a first laying-out.

Justification of dating and attribution

The dating around 1957 is consistent with the MP2 context: the shift from motif to rhythmic organisation, interest in structures (axes, meshes), and a palette combining natural tonalities with formal simplification.

The signature is not clearly legible on the reproduction provided. Attribution rests on stylistic coherence with other paper studies from the same period: modulating through rubbing, structuring through verticals, and establishing space through colour layers.