Fernand Léger

Léonce Rosenberg (Galerie de L'Effort Moderne), Paris

Galerie Bourdon, Paris

Private Collection, Paris

Galerie Melki, Paris

Paris, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, 1924

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, 1920-1924, Le Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1992, no. 374, illustrated p. 305

This work is in very good condition. Original canvas. The paint layer is clean. There are a few pentimenti consistent with Léger's work that are visible across the composition. Under UV light, there is inpainting visible in some of the blue pigments and white border of the red rectangular element at center as well as along the extreme edges of the work. There is older inpainting visible on the left side of the composition in the white pigments, otherwise fine.
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Nature morte is a stunning example of Fernand Léger's style in the twenties. The elegant composition relies upon complex arrangements of geometric and stylized forms. The dynamism of his earlier mechanical works is retained, but the inclusion of the stationery at the center of the work shows Léger's revival of figurative elements, which he reincorporated into his oeuvre. He later recalled, "I needed a rest, to breathe a little. After the dynamism of the mechanical phase, I felt, as it were, a need for the static quality of the large forms that were to follow. Earlier I had broken up the human body. Now I began to put it together again. Since then I have always used the human form. Later it developed, slowly, towards a more realistic, less schematic representation" (quoted in Jean Cassou & Jean Leymarie, Fernand Léger: Drawings and Gouaches, London, 1973, p. 47).

Léger explained his essential aesthetic as follows: "I apply the law of contrasts... I organize the opposition of contrasting values, lines, and curves. I oppose curves to straight lines, flat surfaces to molded forms, pure local colors to nuances of grey. These initial plastic forms are either superimposed on objective elements or not, it makes no difference to me. There is only a question of variety..." (quoted in Edward F. Fry, ed., Fernand Léger: The Functions of Painting, New York, 1973, pp. 24-25). He went on to further propose that: "Modern Man lives more and more in a preponderantly geometric order. All mechanical and industrial human creation is subject to geometric forces" (quoted in ibid., p. 52). These ideas are encapsulated by Nature Morte, in which the writing equipment's bright colors and intricate forms are surrounded by increasingly abstracted forms.