AB-MP3-1959-002 — Chromatic Nebula (I) (1959)

Technical information

Title: Chromatic Nebula (I)
Date: 1959
Technique: Pastel on paper
Dimensions: 50 × 65 cm
Location: Private collection *

Biographical / historical context

In 1959, Breuillaud develops a family of works that can be described as “nebulae”: composition is no longer organised by an architectured skeleton, but by the aggregation of chromatic fragments, like a constellation in formation. The choice of pastel contributes to this aesthetic: the medium enables powdery overlays, velvety transitions and diffuse luminosity.

Chromatic Nebula (I) thus appears as a programmatic proposal, in which the image becomes a field of coloured particles held together by a few mobile lines of force. The largely visible ground acts as a reserve of light: it allows fragments to “float” and gives the eye room to circulate.

Formal / stylistic description

On a pale, slightly yellowish ground, a floating mass occupies the centre: it is composed of small juxtaposed colour patches (oranges, mauves, grey-blues, discreet greens), separated or linked by darker strokes. Contours are deliberately unstable: some fragments fray into the ground, others detach by contrast, producing a sensation of vibration.

A few sharper highlights—green touches, more saturated accents—animate the surface without imposing a central hierarchy. The granularity of the pastel is visible: rubbings, smudges and superimpositions create zones of haze, as if the form were building itself in an atmosphere.

Black lines never fully close the shapes: they function as a mobile armature, letting colours dilate or dissipate into the light field.

Comparative analysis / related works

The work can be compared with contemporaneous oil experiments in which Breuillaud condenses colour into swirling nuclei: the formal principle is similar, but pastel allows a softer dissolution of limits and a more diffuse light.

Compared with the neomorphoses of 1958, structure here becomes less vertical and less “drawn”: form is no longer outlined; it disperses and recomposes through fragments. The series of chromatic nebulae can thus be understood as a provisional culmination: after networks and neomorphoses, form is neither outlined nor framed—it becomes an atmospheric event.

Justification of dating and attribution

The signature “Breuillaud” is legible at lower left and the date “59” appears at lower right, establishing the dating.

Attribution is confirmed by the characteristic vocabulary: aggregation of fragments, gentle contrasts, and the search for a suspended form. The use of pastel, fully consistent with this coloured-mist aesthetic, further anchors the work within the 1959 corpus.