Fernand Léger

Atelier Fernand Léger, Paris

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris

Galerie Fabian Boulakia, Paris

Acquired from the above

 

Berne, Kunsthalle, Fernand Léger, 1952, no. 68

Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden, Fernand Léger, 1881-1955, 1966, no. 11

Tokyo, Galerie Seibu; Nagoya, Galeries Meitetsu; Fukuoka, Centre Culturel, Rétrospective Fernand Léger, Braque, Gris, Laurens, 1972, no. 57

Malines, Stad Mechelen, Cultural Centrum Burgemeester A. Spinoy, Fernand Léger, 1979, no. 57

Berlin, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Fernand Léger, 1980-81, no. 83

Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Fernand Léger, Etudes et tableaux, 1990, no. 37

Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art; Nagoya, The Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art; Ibaraki, The Museum of Modern Art, Fernand Léger, 1994, no. 51

Hommage à Fernand Léger, XXeme Siècle (exhibition catalogue), Paris, 1971, illustrated p. 66 (as dating from 1936)

Gille Néret, Léger, Paris, 1990, no. 268, illustrated p. 198

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1932-1937, Paris, 1996, no. 964, illustrated p. 277

The work is in excellent condition. Original canvas. Under ultra-violet light there are a couple old faint, small specks of inpainting in the background primarily in the upper left quadrant and two areas in the background towards the upper center.
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The aesthetic that Léger adopted in the late 1930s came about as a response to the political atmosphere in Europe at the time.   His commitment to abstraction reflected his political ideals, as he believed that Cubism endowed the object with social value and promoted the idea of a universal language.   As he explained to an interviewer, "Painting takes on a social character in basing itself on the object.  Painting becomes accessible to everyone and can be used in schools, in stadiums, in public monuments, etc."  (quoted in Carolyn Lanchner, Fernand Léger (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998, p. 139). 

Léger's paintings from the late 1930s reflect his interest in the mechanical object, photography, and pure color. Les Deux Poupées reveals Léger's concerns with color and the manipulation of space. In this painting, the artist has reinterpreted the classical still-life theme using Cubist techniques.  He has eliminated any sense of perspective by flattening the picture plane and designating the objects with bright, primary hues and black outlines, silhouetting them against a monochrome surface.  As a result, Léger's composition defies a sense of gravity and transcends the earth-bound nature of the actual subject of two dolls.   

Fig. 1, Fernand Léger, Composition à la fleur, 1937, oil on canvas, Private collection