Fernand Leger

Ƒ Fernand Léger (1881 - 1955) Etude pour les plongeurs, 1941 Gouache sur papier Signée du monogramme, datée "41" et annotée en bas à droite On joint une carte dédicacée "Cordialement...", datée 1942 43 x 33,6 cm Estimation : € 20,000-25,000 Provenance : Buccholz Gallery, New York, 1951 Jane Wade Ltd, New York George Irwin, Quincy, Illinois,1976 Collection privée, Dallas Exposition : Selection from the collection of George. M. Irwin, Krannert Art museum, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champagne, Mars à avril 1980

Fernand Léger * (Argentan 1881–1955 Gif-sur-Yvette) “Composition au fond jaune”, signed, dated F. Léger 32, titled verso, signed, dated F. Léger-32, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, framed, (PP) Provenance: Studio of the artist no. 71 (inscription verso) Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris Private Collection, Europe Exhibitions: Fernand Léger, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe/ Krakow, Muzeum Narodowe/ Lòdz, Muzeum Sztuki, 1971, no. 6; Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, Fernand Léger, Etudes et tableaux, exh. cat. no. 30, ill. page 37 Literature: G. Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné 1932–1937, Adrien Maeght Editeur, 1996, pages 36–37, no. 810 with full-page ill. The random juxtaposition of unrelated elements brings Fernand Léger dangerously close to a superficial similarity with Surrealism and its associations. He followed a contrary path, and the objects in his work were never intended to serve as symbols of psychological processes. His focus was the representational and artistic value of the elements depicted; the value of each element accentuated by contrast. For Léger too, chance was allowed to play a role and the creative process to operate beneath the threshold of the consciousness, but chance and the subconscious existed only up to that moment in which conception began. Consequently, chance, game and the unconscious had to make way for the “rational legitimacy and the deliberate procedure”, here the clearly constructive intention took over. Yet Léger’’’’s works contain “emotional and imaginative components” which are deliberately subordinated to the key focus of the work - the artistic quality of that which is depicted. This appears to be the classic nature of Léger’’’’s artistic character, one which would intensify further over the following years. When drawing a comparison with Léger’’’’s works from the 1920s, we see how inorganic motifs - industrial products such as cutlery, umbrellas or mouth organs, give way to organic shapes and motifs. (B. Mraz: Fernand Léger, 1980) The present work shows contrasting, partly three dimensional, organic shapes (in blue, green, red, black and white) set against a yellow background. Léger breaks with the 1920s tradition of rectilinearity, allowing the objects to float freely within the yellow space. “Léger is content with the simple, straightforward sequencing of his image elements. Again, these objects are so selected that soft shapes are contrasted with hard, and flowing with static forms.” (Fernand Léger, Museum des 20. Jhdt., Vienna 1968)

Lot Description Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Composition signed with initials and dated 'F.L. 43' (lower right) gouache and brush and India ink on paper laid down on card 11 x 8½ in. (28 x 21.5 cm.) Painted in 1943 Provenance Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris. Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich. Acquired by the previous owner, circa 1970.

Lot Description Fernand Leger (1881-1955) Composition en rouge et noir, 1 e r état (Composition en jaune et rouge) signed and dated 'F. LEGER 46 ' (lower right); signed and dated again and inscribed 'F. LEGER. 46 COMPOSITION EN ROUGE ET JAUNE 1 e r ETAT' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 14 7/8 x 17 7/8 in. (37.8 x 45.5 cm.) Painted in 1946 Provenance Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris. Galerie Louis Carré, Paris. Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York, (by 1955). Acquired by the late owners, by 1963. Pre-Lot Text Collection of Celeste and Armand Bartos Literature G. Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné, 1944-1948, Paris, 2000, vol. VII, p. 130, no. 1234 (illustrated). View Lot Notes > In December 1945, shortly before painting the present work, Léger returned to Paris after five years of war-time exile in New York. Although deeply impressed by New York which he called "the most colossal spectacle in the world," there is no discernable "American Period" as such. He describes an unbroken continuity in his art, "My work continues and develops independently of my geographical position... My environment does not affect me in the least. A work of art is the result of an inner condition and owes nothing to picturesque appearances. Perhaps the rhythm or the climate of New York enables me to work faster. That's all" (quoted in W. Schmalenbach, Léger, New York, 1976, p. 142). In the late 1930s and through the 1940s, Léger executed two different types of paintings. On the one hand, he worked on several monumental figure paintings, in which he employed extensive modeling and shading to invest the compositions with both light and depth. Simultaneously, he painted still-life subjects, which embrace flatness and exhibit little or no modeling. The present painting, Composition en rouge et noir, falls into the second category. Although there is a figure present in this work, the subject is essentially a still life, for at this point in his career Léger considered the human figure an object like any other. In doing so he transferred the expressive value within the painting from the human figure as a subject, to the contrasts between the forms of the various elements in the composition. Léger once asserted that, "All the spectacular, sentimental or dramatic manifestations of life are dominated by the laws of contrast" (quoted in Functions of Painting, New York, 1973, pp. 132-133). The law of contrast--between tones and colors, straight and curved shapes, flatness and volume--was the guiding principle in Léger's oeuvre. In the present painting, Léger sought to create the effect of light and depth that he did through modeling by smartly juxtaposing flat shapes of contrasting color and form. Curved forms stand out against the stiff vertical lines that surround them, creating both a sense of depth and movement. The objects depicted in the composition exist primarily for their plastic qualities and potential, while their everyday function is secondary or relatively unimportant. Color is another element of contrast that lends this work its sense of depth, despite the lack of conventional modeling. Bright colors placed against one another, separated by thick black outlines, create the semblance of space within the composition. Léger wrote, "Separated objects which, depending on the color chosen for them, advance or recede on the canvas, and the background color as well, create a new space through movement, with no effect of perspective" (quoted in ibid., pp. 181-182). In the present work, the background color is a neutral gray against which Léger's thick bands of red, green and yellow emerge as striking compositional elements that further emphasize contrast and the resulting perception of movement and space.

LOT 120 THE COLLECTION OF ALEX & ELISABETH LEWYT FERNAND LÉGER 1881 - 1955 LE SOLDAT À VERDUN Signed F Leger, dated 13-10-16 and inscribed le 100 de Marine Verdun (upper left) Pen and ink on a military postcard 5 1/2 by 3 1/2 in. 14 by 8.9 cm Executed on October 13, 1916.