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Lot Essay
In August 1944, as Allied troops advanced towards Paris and the German army hastily withdrew from the city, the French Resistance launched a daring rescue mission. Following a tip-off from Rose Valland, one of their key spies working at the Nazi’s principal repository for stolen art in Paris, their target was a train making its way towards the border. After successfully incapacitating the guards, the small taskforce from the French Resistance pulled open the doors of the freight cars to reveal a treasure trove of Impressionist and modern artworks, all of which had been looted and confiscated from French collections during the war. Among the stacks of masterpieces on this cramped train stood Fernand Léger’s Composition avec personnages, an important work from the collection of the acclaimed Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg, who had been forced to flee Paris several years prior to escape persecution during the War. A dynamic and carefully contemplated study of the human form, the painting showcases the evolution of Léger’s pioneering style during a pivotal moment of transition in his career, as he forged a boldly modern approach to the figure in his work.
Dating to 1920, Composition avec personnages was painted in the aftermath of another devastating conflict. Léger had been deeply impacted by his experiences as a soldier on the front lines during some of the most violent and intensive fighting of the First World War, describing the period as “four years without color.” Invalided out of active service in early 1917, the artist returned to Paris a few months later, and was astonished by the ways in which the avant-garde had continued to evolve during the War years. Determined to plunge himself into his work once again, he began to experiment with his painterly forms, investigating, testing and syncretizing various pictorial ideas he observed around him, to find his own unique painterly language in the wake of the War. During the late teens, Léger concentrated on the mechanical aspects of modern life in the city, a world of architecture, engineering, machines and commercial activity, as Paris experienced a post-War boom. In 1920, however, he shifted his focus to the figure, partially in response to the growing popularity of the so-called rappel à l’ordre (return to order) then sweeping through the European avant-garde.
“I had broken down the human body,” Léger explained, referring to his earlier work, “so I set about putting it together again and rediscovering the human face... I wanted a rest, a breathing space. After the dynamism of the mechanical period, I felt the need for the staticity of large figures” (quoted in C. Lanchner, Fernand Léger, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 188). Fueled by the reopening of the Parisian museums after the War, Léger looked to a range of sources for inspiration, from classical sculpture, to medieval and Renaissance painting, through to the work of his most recent predecessors, such as Paul Cezanne’s monumental bathers, which provided an impressive model for the powerful, volumetric construction of the figure.
Composition avec personnages is among the earliest examples of Léger’s new approach to the figure, and focuses on a trio of women in a carefully constructed interior space, their monumental bodies overlapping and converging in a tight configuration. Two of the women appear nude, their forms composed of sleek grey cones, planes, and cylinders that simultaneously echo ancient sculpture and modern machinery, while the third is dressed in a bright orange blouse and a raspberry-hued skirt, the folds of the fabric suggesting the massive, curving volumes of her body beneath. Converging around a small circular table filled with food, glassware and dishes, the women appear to be engaged in an informal meal or picnic, a relaxed, intimate, everyday occurrence that feels at once timeless and distinctly modern.
This was a subject that intrigued Léger repeatedly during the early 1920s, providing the impetus for such works as Le petit déjeuner (Bauquier, no. 194; Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Les deux femmes et la nature morte (Bauquier, no. 246; Kunstmuseum, Winterthur) and Les Odalisques (Bauquier, no. 251; Private collection). Léger created a slightly different variation of the present scene in another painting of the same year, Les trois femmes à la nature morte (Bauquier, no. 245; Dallas Museum of Art), further abstracting the figures to pure, geometric forms and reducing the level of detail and color in the depiction of the surrounding space.
Shortly after its completion, Composition avec personnages was acquired from Léger by the dealer and amateur artist Georges Aubry, who played a key role in building the market for contemporary avant-garde artists in Paris during the 1920s. It subsequently entered the collection of Paul Rosenberg in 1927, not long after the dealer had signed an exclusive contract with Léger, and remained with him until the Second World War. Rosenberg’s gallery was renowned for its association with some of the leading figures of modern painting, and his clients included some of Europe and America’s most well-known collectors and museums. However, following the German occupation of France, Rosenberg was targeted by the widespread anti-Semitic laws and policies instated by the Vichy Government. During the summer of 1940, his home and gallery at 21 rue La Boétie was forcibly seized, and his personal possessions—including his art collection, his books, photo clichés (glass negatives), furniture, and archives—were looted.
Rosenberg was able to escape Europe with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law in September 1940, travelling to New York via Spain and Portugal. Anticipating the War, he had sent some artworks abroad before the onset of the conflict, but was forced to leave the majority of his gallery’s inventory and his extensive personal collection behind in France. While a group of works stored in Tours under his chauffeur’s name remained safely hidden for the duration of the War, the bulk of Rosenberg’s collection—including the artworks in his gallery, the family home, and 162 paintings in a bank vault near the southwestern town where the family spent the spring of 1940—were stolen by the Nazis.
After its confiscation by the infamous Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in September 1941, Composition avec personnages was transported to the Jeu de Paume, the small museum on the edge of the Tuileries Gardens that had been commandeered by the Germans to process and store the fine art stolen during these raids, before their transportation to the Reich. Photographs from inside the museum reveal that while works by the Old Masters were carefully arranged throughout the main rooms, paintings and sculptures by those modern avant-garde artists who were considered “Degenerate” under the Nazi regime were gathered together in a special area of the museum, known as the “Salle des martyrs,” the entrance to which was hidden behind a heavy curtain. Here, several compositions from Rosenberg’s collection were hung on walls tightly crammed with pictures by Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico.
Rose Valland was the only member of the French curatorial staff permitted to remain working at the Jeu de Paume during the dark years of the German Occupation. Thanks to her unwavering bravery, the movements of thousands of looted artworks from national and private French collections were meticulously recorded—unbeknownst to the Nazis, Valland spent her days gathering critical information on the identity and destinations of looted cultural property that passed through the museum. After the final cases of artworks from the Jeu de Paume were loaded for transportation to Germany in August 1944, she quickly sent word to the French Resistance that train 40.400, one of the last to leave Paris before the Liberation, was carrying 148 crates of French-owned Impressionist and modern art, destined for a German depot in Nikolsburg, Moravia. Higher priority traffic subsequently sidetracked the train at Aulnay, outside Paris, for nearly a week, allowing the French to intercept the shipment.
Leading the mission was Paul Rosenberg’s son Alexandre, who took command of a detachment of nine volunteers, and successfully captured the train on 27 August. Alexandre was astounded to discover numerous artworks from his father’s lost collection on-board, many of which he had last seen on the walls of his parents’ apartment at 21 rue La Boétie. After the end of the War, Valland’s diligent records proved essential in allowing these looted artworks to be restored to their rightful owners—Composition avec personnages was among the works that were recovered and returned by France’s restitution commission to Paul Rosenberg by 1946.
Dating to 1920, Composition avec personnages was painted in the aftermath of another devastating conflict. Léger had been deeply impacted by his experiences as a soldier on the front lines during some of the most violent and intensive fighting of the First World War, describing the period as “four years without color.” Invalided out of active service in early 1917, the artist returned to Paris a few months later, and was astonished by the ways in which the avant-garde had continued to evolve during the War years. Determined to plunge himself into his work once again, he began to experiment with his painterly forms, investigating, testing and syncretizing various pictorial ideas he observed around him, to find his own unique painterly language in the wake of the War. During the late teens, Léger concentrated on the mechanical aspects of modern life in the city, a world of architecture, engineering, machines and commercial activity, as Paris experienced a post-War boom. In 1920, however, he shifted his focus to the figure, partially in response to the growing popularity of the so-called rappel à l’ordre (return to order) then sweeping through the European avant-garde.
“I had broken down the human body,” Léger explained, referring to his earlier work, “so I set about putting it together again and rediscovering the human face... I wanted a rest, a breathing space. After the dynamism of the mechanical period, I felt the need for the staticity of large figures” (quoted in C. Lanchner, Fernand Léger, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 188). Fueled by the reopening of the Parisian museums after the War, Léger looked to a range of sources for inspiration, from classical sculpture, to medieval and Renaissance painting, through to the work of his most recent predecessors, such as Paul Cezanne’s monumental bathers, which provided an impressive model for the powerful, volumetric construction of the figure.
Composition avec personnages is among the earliest examples of Léger’s new approach to the figure, and focuses on a trio of women in a carefully constructed interior space, their monumental bodies overlapping and converging in a tight configuration. Two of the women appear nude, their forms composed of sleek grey cones, planes, and cylinders that simultaneously echo ancient sculpture and modern machinery, while the third is dressed in a bright orange blouse and a raspberry-hued skirt, the folds of the fabric suggesting the massive, curving volumes of her body beneath. Converging around a small circular table filled with food, glassware and dishes, the women appear to be engaged in an informal meal or picnic, a relaxed, intimate, everyday occurrence that feels at once timeless and distinctly modern.
This was a subject that intrigued Léger repeatedly during the early 1920s, providing the impetus for such works as Le petit déjeuner (Bauquier, no. 194; Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Les deux femmes et la nature morte (Bauquier, no. 246; Kunstmuseum, Winterthur) and Les Odalisques (Bauquier, no. 251; Private collection). Léger created a slightly different variation of the present scene in another painting of the same year, Les trois femmes à la nature morte (Bauquier, no. 245; Dallas Museum of Art), further abstracting the figures to pure, geometric forms and reducing the level of detail and color in the depiction of the surrounding space.
Shortly after its completion, Composition avec personnages was acquired from Léger by the dealer and amateur artist Georges Aubry, who played a key role in building the market for contemporary avant-garde artists in Paris during the 1920s. It subsequently entered the collection of Paul Rosenberg in 1927, not long after the dealer had signed an exclusive contract with Léger, and remained with him until the Second World War. Rosenberg’s gallery was renowned for its association with some of the leading figures of modern painting, and his clients included some of Europe and America’s most well-known collectors and museums. However, following the German occupation of France, Rosenberg was targeted by the widespread anti-Semitic laws and policies instated by the Vichy Government. During the summer of 1940, his home and gallery at 21 rue La Boétie was forcibly seized, and his personal possessions—including his art collection, his books, photo clichés (glass negatives), furniture, and archives—were looted.
Rosenberg was able to escape Europe with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law in September 1940, travelling to New York via Spain and Portugal. Anticipating the War, he had sent some artworks abroad before the onset of the conflict, but was forced to leave the majority of his gallery’s inventory and his extensive personal collection behind in France. While a group of works stored in Tours under his chauffeur’s name remained safely hidden for the duration of the War, the bulk of Rosenberg’s collection—including the artworks in his gallery, the family home, and 162 paintings in a bank vault near the southwestern town where the family spent the spring of 1940—were stolen by the Nazis.
After its confiscation by the infamous Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) in September 1941, Composition avec personnages was transported to the Jeu de Paume, the small museum on the edge of the Tuileries Gardens that had been commandeered by the Germans to process and store the fine art stolen during these raids, before their transportation to the Reich. Photographs from inside the museum reveal that while works by the Old Masters were carefully arranged throughout the main rooms, paintings and sculptures by those modern avant-garde artists who were considered “Degenerate” under the Nazi regime were gathered together in a special area of the museum, known as the “Salle des martyrs,” the entrance to which was hidden behind a heavy curtain. Here, several compositions from Rosenberg’s collection were hung on walls tightly crammed with pictures by Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico.
Rose Valland was the only member of the French curatorial staff permitted to remain working at the Jeu de Paume during the dark years of the German Occupation. Thanks to her unwavering bravery, the movements of thousands of looted artworks from national and private French collections were meticulously recorded—unbeknownst to the Nazis, Valland spent her days gathering critical information on the identity and destinations of looted cultural property that passed through the museum. After the final cases of artworks from the Jeu de Paume were loaded for transportation to Germany in August 1944, she quickly sent word to the French Resistance that train 40.400, one of the last to leave Paris before the Liberation, was carrying 148 crates of French-owned Impressionist and modern art, destined for a German depot in Nikolsburg, Moravia. Higher priority traffic subsequently sidetracked the train at Aulnay, outside Paris, for nearly a week, allowing the French to intercept the shipment.
Leading the mission was Paul Rosenberg’s son Alexandre, who took command of a detachment of nine volunteers, and successfully captured the train on 27 August. Alexandre was astounded to discover numerous artworks from his father’s lost collection on-board, many of which he had last seen on the walls of his parents’ apartment at 21 rue La Boétie. After the end of the War, Valland’s diligent records proved essential in allowing these looted artworks to be restored to their rightful owners—Composition avec personnages was among the works that were recovered and returned by France’s restitution commission to Paul Rosenberg by 1946.