AB-PN-1934-002 — Still Life with Meat (1934)

Technical information

Title : Still Life with Meat
Date : 1934
Technique : Oil on canvas
Dimensions : 65 × 81 cm
Location : Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM)

Biographical / historical context

In 1934, Breuillaud intensifies his work on still life, turning it into a true silent theatre. At this date, objects cease to be accessories: they become actors. Meat, cloth, bread, fruit, jug—each a material presence carrying both plastic and existential weight.

The classic motif of the “butcher’s cut” is taken up here without academic traditionalism. Breuillaud seeks neither a vanitas effect nor mere virtuosity. He stages a drama through paint itself: flesh, drapery, and light collide in a heavy, dense, almost sculptural matter. Its presence in the Musée d’Art Moderne confirms the central place of this canvas within the PN corpus.

Formal / stylistic description

At the centre, a large cut of meat rests on a crumpled cloth in beige and rosy tones. Around this fleshy nucleus, Breuillaud arranges the table like a stage:

— a long baguette crosses the ensemble on the diagonal;

— on the right, a cluster of fruit (apples, pears, grapes) forms a rounded mass;

— at the back, a small ochre-grey jug introduces a calm vertical axis.

The composition is built in successive planes, yet depth remains contained, as if the space were pulled toward the surface. Drapery plays a structuring role: its multiple folds unify the scene and organise the eye’s circulation, while opposing the meat with another kind of matter—dry, textile, pleated.

Paint is thick and worked in relief. The reds of the meat are dense and dark—sometimes almost black—striated with lighter passages that evoke raw flesh. The bread is laid in oblique touches of ochre and muted yellow. The fruit are treated as small rounded masses, brighter, bringing a living counterpoint. The background—brown and green in superposed layers—absorbs light rather than reflecting it.

Light is lateral and matte. It produces no sparkle: it enters the paint, giving the objects a physical, almost tactile presence. The whole holds a constant balance between the raw (the meat) and the living (the fruit), tightened further by the tension of the drapery.

Comparative analysis / related works

This still life dialogues directly with *The Red Mullets* (1931): the same interest in flesh, the same construction through warm/cool contrasts, and the same role of cloth as a structuring element. Here, however, the drama densifies: paint becomes heavier, the palette darker, and the scene more enclosed—like an airless interior.

It also belongs to the still lifes of 1934–1935 in which Breuillaud deepens the theatre of objects. Compared with the intimate portraits of 1933–1934, emotion is no longer carried by a face but by matter itself: folds, masses, thicknesses, and absorbed light. The jug at the back—simple and stable—acts as a silent marker within a composition in which everything seems to weigh.

Justification of dating and attribution

A dating to 1934 is coherent and nearly certain: heavy paint surface, warm/cool contrasts typical of the year, and a meat–bread–fruit arrangement frequently revisited in this segment. Stylistic consistency with PN works of 1934, together with its presence in a public collection, confirms the attribution without ambiguity.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Collection: Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM).