Fernand Léger

Collection Sara & Gerald Murphy (commissioned for Villa America in Antibes)
Private Collection
Collection Galerie Maeght, Paris

Paris, Galerie Maeght, Sur quatre murs, 1958, no. 9
Berlin, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Fernand Léger 1881-1955, 1980-81, nos. 64 to 66
Biot, Musée national Fernand Léger, Hommage à Fernand Léger (1881-1955), exposition du Centenaire, 1981, nos. 57 to 59
Paris, Galerie Maeght, Léger, 1986, n.n.
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fernand Léger. Mostra antologica, 1989-90, no. 31 (dated 1931)
Villeneuve d’Ascq, Musée d’art moderne de Villeneuve d’Ascq, Léger, 1990, no. 31
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Polyptyques, Le Tableau multiple du Moyen Age au XXème siècle, 1990, no. 52 (dated circa 1931)
Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Les Années 30 en Europe, 1997, n.n.
Salzbourg, Rupertinum Museum Moderner Kunst, Fernand Léger : L'esprit moderne, 2002, no. XII (titled Grandes queues de comète)
Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, Le Noir est une couleur, 2006, n.n.
Williamstown (MA), Williams College Museum of Art ; New Haven (CT), Yale University Art Gallery & Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Making it new – The art and style of Sara and Gerald Murphy, 2007-08, n.n.

Christian Zervos, 'Une nouvelle étape dans l’œuvre de Fernand Léger. Gouaches et dessins colorés' in Cahiers d’Art, Paris, 1932, nos. 6 to 7, illustrated p. 265
'Fernand Léger au Kunsthaus de Zürich' in Cahiers d’Art, nos. 3 & 4, Paris, 1933, illustrated n. p. (titled Peintures murales and dated 1931-32)
'Sur quatre murs' in Derrière le miroir, Paris, 1958, nos. 107 to 109, illustrated pp. 4 & 5
André Verdet, Fernand Léger, Florence, 1969, no. 13, illustrated p. 58
Christian Derouet, Fernand Léger, la poésie de l’objet 1928-1934, Paris, 1981, illustrated p. 11
Gilles Néret, Léger, Paris, 1990, no. 271, illustrated p. 200
Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger. Catalogue raisonné 1929-1931, Paris, 1995, no. 750, illustrated pp. 244 & 245
Arnauld Pierre, Fernand Léger. Peindre la vie moderne, Paris, 1997, illustrated p. 71
Carolyn Lanchner, Kristen Erickson, Matthew Affron, Jodi Hauptman & Beth Handler, Fernand Léger, New York, 1998, illustrated p. 122
Yoyo Maeght, Isabelle Maeght & Franck Maubert, Maeght, L'Aventure de l'art vivant, Paris, 2006, illustrated p. 56 (titled Les Grandes queues de comètes)

This work is in overall excellent condition given its size and age although it would benefit from a light clean. All three canvases are original and unlined. Left Panel: A close inspection reveals some minor frame abrasion along the edges and some faint chancis in the lower right quadrant. There are two thin scratches running horizontally across the lower right edge of the upper right form. There are two small areas of stable hairline shrinkage with associated tiny craquelure in the white pigment of the two uppermost forms and some tiny vertical lines of craquelure in the black background, towards the centre of the left and right edges. There is no evidence of retouching visible under UV light. This panel is in very good original condition. Central Panel: A close inspection reveals some minor frame abrasion along the edges, notably in the upper right corner. There are two small areas of stable hairline shrinkage: towards the upper right corner and in the black background pigment to the left of centre. There is a minor nick to the surface of the canvas along the right edge, just below the centre, which has been lightly retouched. There is evidence of some very minor surface abrasion towards the centre of the composition. There is no further evidence of retouching visible under UV light. This panel is in very good condition. Right Panel: A close inspection reveals some minor frame abrasion along the edges. There is a thin diagonal scratch towards the lower right edge and some stable hairline craquelure towards the centre of the tall thin element which runs parallel with the right edge. There are a few tiny spots of paint-loss to the lower left of the centre of the composition which have been lightly retouched. There is no further evidence of retouching visible under UV light. This panel is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Conceived in 1930 by Fernand Léger for Villa America, Sara and Gerald Murphy’s home in Antibes, Queues de comète sur fond noir is testimony to the dramatic evolution of the artist’s aesthetic in the 1930s. As Matthew Affron notes (‘Léger’s modernism: subject and objects’, in Carolyn Lanchner & al., Fernand Léger, New York, 1998, pp. 121-122), this monumental triptych marks a radical change in Léger’s art; he abandons the codes of his mechanical paintings, adopting a vocabulary made up of biomorphic and celestial forms. Indeed, if we are to consider Christian Zervos’ understanding of the present work, Léger found inspiration for Queues de comète sur fond noir in an astronomy book. In more general terms, it is certainly also possible to detect a latent sense of the terrible effects of the financial and industrial crisis that hit Europe and the United States of America in the 1930s in the present work. Léger turns away from the industrial aesthetic that had been so admired during the 1920s, distancing himself from geometric abstraction and renewing his interest in organic and natural forms that are somewhat reminiscent of certain motifs employed by Hans Arp.

Sara and Gerald Murphy, who commissioned the present triptych, were one of the mythical couples of the années folles and they are often cited as the inspiration for the characters Dick and Nicole Driver in Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. Both from wealthy American families, they settled in France in 1921 in order to escape the rigorous constraints of New York high society. From the moment they arrived in Paris, the Murphy’s were readily integrated into the avant-garde circle that gravitated around Serge Diaghilev, the founder of the Russian Ballet. They became friends with many young artists, including Picasso, Derain, Cocteau and Léger who became Gerald Murphy’s mentor when he decided to launch a career as a painter. It was Léger who recommended that Murphy be chosen to design the set and costumes of Within the Quota for the Swedish Ballet.

In 1923, having discovered Antibes thanks to their friend Cole Porter, Sara and Gerald Murphy bought a modest villa there which, after much renovation and several extensions, would become the mythical Villa America; the setting for many an unforgettable evening on the French Riviera. Fervent admirers of the aesthetic developed by Le Corbusier in L’Esprit nouveau, the Murphys turned Villa America into a veritable manifestation of the Modernist mode: pure forms, modern installations that had never before been seen in France (such as the much talked-about screen doors) and minimalist decor (with black flooring, zebra hide rugs, mirrored walls and the ubiquitous round glass spheres filled with flowers) contributed to the growing popularity of this new taste throughout European high society. Villa America was above all the backdrop for intense artistic exchanges; the Murphys regularly welcomed Picasso, Man Ray, Francis Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, Jean Cocteau and Ernest Hemingway among others there.

It was for this villa that Gerald Murphy commissioned his friend Fernand Léger to paint Queues de comète sur fond noir. Originally conceived as a screen, Léger executed numerous working studies for the present work, a sign of the importance he accorded to the tonal harmony of the composition and the arrangement of the biomorphic forms. The present triptych, with its white and blue celestial forms on a black background, constitutes the front of the screen commissioned by Gerald Murphy, whilst the reverse (which now resides in the Musée national Fernand Léger in Biot) depicts similar forms on a brown background. The present work is thus one of the very last testimonies to the extraordinary and enchanting epoch of the French Riviera of the 1920s, just before the crisis of 1929, of which Villa America was one of the most emblematic symbols.