Technical information
- Title : Nude at the Basin
- Date : c. 1939
- Technique : Oil on canvas
- Dimensions : 76 × 50 cm
- Location : Private collection
Biographical / historical context
Executed on the eve of the conflict, this painting belongs to the sequence of studio nudes Breuillaud developed in 1939, at a moment when his work narrows to fundamental, recurring motifs: the live model, interior light, and the ordinary gestures of washing. In this cycle, the nude is no longer the pretext for an academic exercise, but a concrete presence observed in a reduced domestic space, with renewed attention to bodily weight and the truth of attitudes. The washing scene, stripped of any narrative, offers a simple motif that allows the analysis to concentrate on matter, volumes, and the relationship between flesh, linen and objects.
Formal / stylistic description
The composition shows a nude woman seated on a stool, leaning forward as she wrings a pale cloth above a blue‑grey metal basin. The action draws torso and arms into a compact knot, while the legs—apart and firmly planted—anchor the figure in the lower plane and lend the pose an almost sculptural density. Breuillaud models the flesh through blended passages and discreet impasto: skin tones oscillate between pinkish ochres and milky whites, crossed by cool greenish and bluish shadows that structure the volumes without insistent contouring.
Around the body, the setting is reduced to a few dark masses—a green sofa, a red‑brown wall, floor and rug—whose thick matter and muted accords reinforce the enclosed intimacy of the scene. The contrast between the whiteness of the cloth, the metal of the basin and the subdued flesh organises the reading and leads the eye from the bowed face toward the centre of the gesture.
Comparative analysis / related works
Through its washing motif, the work closely dialogues with other contemporary nudes in the same group, in which Breuillaud favours simple actions (linen, basin, garment) to stabilise the pose and explore variations of light on skin. Compared with the *Seated Nude from Behind* (1939), more concentrated on the body’s curve against an almost abstract ground, *Nude at the Basin* retains a more descriptive studio dimension, with identifiable objects and minimal spatial depth.
In contrast to *Nude Putting on a Sock*, lighter and more decorative, the palette here tightens around browns, dark greens and metallic blues, giving the scene a silent gravity. The ensemble confirms the cycle’s coherence: the same search for carnal presence, the same refusal of anecdote, and the same construction through solid masses.
Justification of dating and attribution
The dating c. 1939 is supported by stylistic coherence with the PG1 group: a compact studio pose, a recurring washing motif, modelling through blended passages and measured impasto, and a pre‑war palette pairing warm flesh with cool shadows. The way the body is built as dense volumes, without linearity, and the very physical relationship between flesh, cloth and metal correspond to the plastic solutions observed in the nudes of the same year.
The attribution to Breuillaud is justified by this signature facture—material density, fusion of planes, muted chroma—and by the overall accord between the handling of the model and the studio dispositif, characteristic of his production of the late 1930s.
Provenance / exhibitions / publications
Private collection.
© Bruno Restout — Catalogue raisonné André Breuillaud