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Lot Essay
This gouache is a preparatory study to the oil of the same title and date, published in G. Bauquier, Fernand Léger. Catalogue Raisonné de l'oeuvre peint 1925-1928, vol. III, Paris, 1993, no. 561 (illustrated p. 286).
Alfred Richet who acquired this work from Galerie Louise Leiris was a co-founder of the gallery Percier in Paris at the end of World War I. The intention of the gallery was to promote young contemporary artists and with the help of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Richet assimilated his collection with an emphasis on cubism. Kahnweiler and Richet had met in 1929 and it was Richet who became instrumental in persuading Kahnweiler to change the name of the gallery after the occupation of the Nazis in 1940. Galerie Simon was thence named after Zette Leiris, the sister-in-law of Kahnweiler and wife of the poet Michel Leiris. Richet's gallery (Galerie Percier) went out of business in 1946 and some of the artists represented by him were then taken on by Galerie Louise Leiris.
Alfred Richet who acquired this work from Galerie Louise Leiris was a co-founder of the gallery Percier in Paris at the end of World War I. The intention of the gallery was to promote young contemporary artists and with the help of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Richet assimilated his collection with an emphasis on cubism. Kahnweiler and Richet had met in 1929 and it was Richet who became instrumental in persuading Kahnweiler to change the name of the gallery after the occupation of the Nazis in 1940. Galerie Simon was thence named after Zette Leiris, the sister-in-law of Kahnweiler and wife of the poet Michel Leiris. Richet's gallery (Galerie Percier) went out of business in 1946 and some of the artists represented by him were then taken on by Galerie Louise Leiris.