Fernand Léger

Louis Clayeux, Paris
Pierre Bérès, Paris (acquired from the above circa 1950)
Private collection (by descent from the above and sold: Christie's, Paris, Pierre Berès à livre ouvert, December 12-13, 2012, lot 434)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné 1932-37, Paris, 1996, no. 870, illustrated p. 134 (incorrectly described as oil on canvas)

The board is stable. There is some small dots of retouching, the largest is approximately 1.5 cm long, predominately along the edges, to the upper left corner and to the centre of the upper edge. There is some abrasion along the extreme edges. There are some tiny flecks of paint loss predominately to the right border. This work is in overall 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."

Painted in 1935, La Corde is one of the last works from the most intimate period of Léger's career. Between the 1920s marked by the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts where he collaborated with Le Corbusier and Mallet-Stevens and his trip to the United States in the autumn of 1935 where he assisted at his first retrospective exhibition at the MoMA and then at the Art Institute if Chicago, Léger's work reveals a heightened and unusual sensitivity for this painter of mechanized bodies (in the 1920s) before he threw himself into monumental formats from the mid-1930s.

As with La Corde, the paintings from this period are unusually soft and sensual. Léger was indeed obsessed with a woman whom he met in 1931. Until 1941 "Bear" wrote many letters to his "Jewel": "I hold you in my hands entirely in fragments as you know – I begin and I follow the line – the form, and I always finish around the mouth and the ivory teeth, your white teeth even in the night" (quoted in Silex et draperies, les années trente de Fernand Léger, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, in Fernand Léger, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, p.182).

If this relationship was behind this new aesthetic, an aesthetic of metamorphosis which follows an aesthetic of contrast, the general context of Surrealism should also be taken into account and its effect on Léger. The contours that link the sinuous objects are not mechanical.

With its floating forms and metaphors, La Corde opens up the romantic and poetic scope of the painting.