L'Echafaudage

L’Echafaudage dates from one of the most crucial moments in Léger's life and career. After his return from the First World War and the cessation of hostilities, the artist took up his palette and brush once more, having already established himself as one of the protagonists of Cubism some years earlier. The war had provided Léger with a form of epiphany, which took several shapes. Now moving away from his earlier almost fully abstract Contrastes de formes, Léger immersed himself in the depiction of the world around him. The factory and the cityscape in particular became his subjects, as did the modern figures who peopled them.
The present work on paper depicts a scaffolding, perhaps inspired by the ones Léger saw around the Place de Clichy, where he often walked as Paris was coming back to life. Here, behind the metallic bars, bold and bright lettering is visible—P, L, I. Such elements are often visible in Léger’s work from the period, highlighting the impact that advertising had on the artist, especially after his experiences on the Front.
Of his mechanical period, Léger recounted: “I have used mechanical elements a lot in my pictures these last two years; my present method is adapting itself to this, and I find in it an element of variety and intensity. The modern way of life is full of such elements for us; we must know how to use them. Every age brings with it some new elements which should serve us; the great difficulty is to translate them into plastic terms and avoid the error of Futurism” (quoted in J. Cassou and J. Leymarie, Fernand Léger: Drawings and Gouaches, New York, 1973, p. 45).