Tte de jeune fille

As a teacher, Lger often exhorted his students to "Draw first, an exact drawing with line, lines and nothing else. Small parts first: hands, feet, then human forms, and next comprehensive compositions." (quoted in J.Cassou and J. Leymarie, Fernand Lger Drawings and Gouaches, London, 1972, p. 117). The artist himself followed this approach as he embarked on a series of large figure compositions in the early 1930s. The present work is probably related to the uppermost female figure in Composition aux trois figures, three versions of which Lger painted in 1932 (Baucquier, nos. 815-817). Often tightly-cropped and seen close-up, Lger's figure studies have a monumental aspect that recalls Picasso's "colossal" style of the early 1920s.