Music for Bodies

Technical information

Title : Music for Bodies
Date : c. 1950
Technique : Oil on canvas (HST)
Dimensions : 81 × 100 cm
Location : Private collection

Biographical / historical context

A large-format painting belonging to the “Arcadian” strand at the start of the 1950s. Over a short period, Breuillaud maintained a humanist figuration inherited from the previous decades, while simplifying the landscape into broad, synthetic masses.

These figure compositions briefly coexist with the other PR2 branch—more clearly geometrised—focused on constructing landscape through facets. They mark a transition: Cézannian tradition and Mediterranean pastoral are still perceptible, yet already filtered through a drive toward synthesis.

The work thus stands on the threshold of the shift toward more constructed structures (1951–1952), without yet adopting the systematic fragmentation found in the most cubist PR2 landscapes.

Formal / stylistic description

Several female figures rest in a luminous landscape: two reclining nudes in the foreground, a seated figure in the centre background playing the guitar, and two standing figures at right, whose drapery visually aligns the bodies with the vegetal masses.

The volumes are fleshy and modelled through gentle transitions; contours remain rounded, without marked angular tension. Large trunks punctuate the composition vertically and open up views toward a bluish distance.

The palette—warm but not saturated—combines pinkish ochres, muted greens and turquoise blues. The space remains airy and pastoral, with a triangular construction that stabilises the whole.

Comparative analysis / related works

By maintaining a volumetric figuration, this painting differs clearly from the geometric corpus of PR2-1950-001/002/003/004 landscapes.

It relates to the rare figure works from the same segment—especially the large formats in which Breuillaud sought a synthesis between figure and nature—yet remains softer and less “cubist” than the experiments that followed immediately.

It can be considered among the last major figurative paintings before the widespread adoption of polyhedral construction in the following years.

Justification of dating and attribution

The presence of naturalistic figures combined with a landscape that is still only lightly segmented, together with the softness of the modelling, suggests a date in the first half of 1950, before the generalised polyhedral turn.

Attribution to André Breuillaud is retained on stylistic grounds: treatment of volumes, the way drapery is harmonised with the landscape, and continuity with his pre-war figurative research in transition toward PR2.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Private collection. Previous provenance, exhibitions and publications: information not communicated to date.