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Lot Essay
This work was recorded in Léger's studio as no. 105.
The year 1936, when the present work was painted, is bracketed by Léger's two visits to the United States. In 1935, Léger, in company with Le Corbusier, travelled there when both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago held shows of his work. He was greatly inspired by the success of the exhibitions, by the energy of New York and by revived friendships with Le Corbusier, James J. Sweeney and the circle of architects, artists and writers to whom he was introduced.
The 1930s are marked by a stylistical shift in Léger's work moving away from the world of machines and turning towards natural forms, vegetable, mineral, animal and the human figure. The experience of New York infused his paintings with a new vigour and optimism, which undoubtedly strengthened his works at the time. Léger at this period was intrigued by the compositional juxtapositon of opposing forms, flat geometric shapes and rounded, organic ones. Speaking of the works he executed at this time, Léger asserted: 'I dispersed my objects in space and kept them all together while at the same time making them radiate out from the surface of the picture. A tricky interplay of harmonies and rhythms made up of background and surface colours, guidelines, distances and oppostions' (quoted in W. Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, New York 1976, p. 132).
The year 1936, when the present work was painted, is bracketed by Léger's two visits to the United States. In 1935, Léger, in company with Le Corbusier, travelled there when both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago held shows of his work. He was greatly inspired by the success of the exhibitions, by the energy of New York and by revived friendships with Le Corbusier, James J. Sweeney and the circle of architects, artists and writers to whom he was introduced.
The 1930s are marked by a stylistical shift in Léger's work moving away from the world of machines and turning towards natural forms, vegetable, mineral, animal and the human figure. The experience of New York infused his paintings with a new vigour and optimism, which undoubtedly strengthened his works at the time. Léger at this period was intrigued by the compositional juxtapositon of opposing forms, flat geometric shapes and rounded, organic ones. Speaking of the works he executed at this time, Léger asserted: 'I dispersed my objects in space and kept them all together while at the same time making them radiate out from the surface of the picture. A tricky interplay of harmonies and rhythms made up of background and surface colours, guidelines, distances and oppostions' (quoted in W. Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, New York 1976, p. 132).