Technical information
- Title : Field Work (Preparatory Drawing)
- Date : c. 1947
- Technique : Pen-and-ink drawing
- Dimensions : Not specified
- Location : Unknown
Biographical / historical context
This drawing belongs to André Breuillaud’s activity of notation and study in the aftermath of the war. Around 1947, he produced numerous preparatory sheets testing motifs of figures in motion, often linked to rural life and scenes of work or collective ritual.
Executed in pen, these paper compositions develop his formal vocabulary: simplified silhouettes, foreshortening, oblique rhythms, and structuring diagonals.
Formal / stylistic description
Three figures occupy the space around a large draught animal, reduced to a powerful, arched mass. The bodies are indicated by a firm contour with little modelling: the line privileges posture, balance, and gesture.
The background is treated with hatching and reserves that suggest a landscape without describing it. The whole rests on tensions between the animal’s curve, the figures’ verticals, and the diagonals of a tool or staff acting as a compositional axis.
Comparative analysis / related works
The theme of field work and the figure–animal pairing appears in several studies from this period, in which Breuillaud seeks a synthesis between observation and stylization. The simplification of volumes and economy of means foreshadow later painted compositions where collective movement takes precedence over anecdote.
The sheet is also close to other preparatory drawings through its frieze-like construction and the use of pen to fix the essentials of the silhouettes.
Justification of dating and attribution
A dating around 1947 is consistent with the medium (pen study), the rural iconography, and the already assertive stylization of bodies typical of this transitional post-war phase.
The attribution is supported by the signature at lower right and by graphic constants (confident contours, short hatchings, and nervous foreshortening) observed on other sheets attributed to the artist.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection.
© Bruno Restout - Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud