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{{Infobox artist |
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| name = Fernand Léger |
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| image = Fernand Léger.jpg |
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| caption = Fernand Léger photographed by {{nowrap|[[Carl Van Vechten]], 1936}} |
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| birth_name = |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1881|2|4|mf=y}} |
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| birth_place = [[Argentan]], [[Orne]], [[French Third Republic|France]] |
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| death_date = {{death date and age|1955|8|17|1881|2|4|mf=y}} |
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| death_place = [[Gif-sur-Yvette]], [[French Fourth Republic|France]] |
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| nationality = [[French Third Republic|French]] |
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| field = [[Painting]], [[printmaking]] and [[filmmaking]] |
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| training = |
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| movement = [[Tubism]]<br>[[Cubism]]<br>[[Modernism]] |
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| works = |
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| patrons = |
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| awards = |
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}} |
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'''Joseph Fernand Henri Léger''' ({{IPA-fr|leʒe|lang}}; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French [[painting|painter]], [[sculpture|sculptor]], and [[film director|filmmaker]]. In his early works he created a personal form of [[cubism]] which he gradually modified into a more [[Figurative art|figurative]], [[populism|populist]] style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of [[pop art]]. |
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==Biography== |
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Léger was born in [[Argentan]], [[Orne]], [[Lower Normandy]], where his father raised cattle. Fernand Léger initially trained as an architect from 1897 to 1899, before moving in 1900 to Paris, where he supported himself as an architectural draftsman. After military service in [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]], [[Yvelines]], in 1902–1903, he enrolled at the School of Decorative Arts after his application to the [[École des Beaux-Arts]] was rejected. He nevertheless attended the Beaux-Arts as a non-enrolled student, spending what he described as "three empty and useless years" studying with [[Jean-Léon Gérôme|Gérôme]] and others, while also studying at the [[Académie Julian]].<ref>Néret 1993, p. 35.</ref> He began to work seriously as a painter only at the age of 25. At this point his work showed the influence of [[impressionism]], as seen in ''Le Jardin de ma mère'' (My Mother's Garden) of 1905, one of the few paintings from this period that he did not later destroy. A new emphasis on drawing and geometry appeared in Léger's work after he saw the [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]] retrospective at the [[Salon d'Automne]] in 1907.<ref>Néret 1993, pp. 35–38.</ref> |
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===1909–1914=== |
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| image1 = Fernand Léger, 1911-1912, Les Fumeurs (The Smokers), oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York..jpg |
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| width1 = 160 |
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| caption1 = ''Les Fumeurs (The Smokers)'', 1911-12, oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], New York |
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| alt1 = A painting of smokers |
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| image2 = Fernand Léger, Woman in Blue, Femme en Bleu, 1912, oil on canvas, 193 x 129.9 cm.jpg |
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| width2 = 147 |
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| caption2 = ''La Femme en Bleu'' (''Woman in Blue''), 1912, oil on canvas, 193 x 129.9 cm (76 x 51 1/8 inches), [[Kunstmuseum Basel]]. Exhibited at the 1912 [[Salon d'Automne]], Paris |
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| alt2 = A painting of a woman in blue |
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| image3 = Fernand Léger, 1912-13, Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l'atelier), oil on burlap, 128.6 x 95.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim.jpg |
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| width3 = 161 |
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| caption3 = ''Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l'atelier)'', 1912-13, oil on burlap, 128.6 x 95.9 cm, [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], New York |
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| alt3 = Painting of a nude |
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}} |
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In 1909 he moved to [[Montparnasse]] and met such leaders of the [[avant-garde]] as [[Archipenko]], [[Jacques Lipchitz|Lipchitz]], [[Chagall]], [[Joseph Csaky]] and [[Robert Delaunay]]. His major painting of this period is ''Nudes in the Forest'' (1909–10), in which Léger displays a personal form of [[Cubism]] that his critics termed "[[Tubism]]" for its emphasis on cylindrical forms.<ref>Néret 1993, p. 242.</ref> |
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In 1910 he exhibited at the [[Salon d'Automne]] in the same room (salle VIII) with [[Jean Metzinger]] and [[Henri Le Fauconnier]]. In 1911 the hanging committee of the [[Salon des Indépendants]] placed together the painters that would soon be identified as 'Cubists'. Metzinger, Gleizes, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay and Léger were responsible for revealing Cubism to the general public for the first time as an organized group. |
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The following year he again exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and Indépendants with the Cubists, and joined with several artists, including [[Henri Le Fauconnier]], [[Jean Metzinger]], [[Albert Gleizes]], [[Francis Picabia]] and the Duchamp brothers, [[Jacques Villon]], [[Raymond Duchamp-Villon]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]] to form the [[Puteaux Group]]—also called the ''[[Section d'Or]]'' (The Golden Section). |
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Léger's paintings, from then until 1914, became increasingly [[Abstract art|abstract]]. Their tubular, conical, and cubed forms are laconically rendered in rough patches of [[primary colors]] plus green, black and white, as seen in the series of paintings with the title ''Contrasting Forms''. Léger made no use of the [[collage]] technique pioneered by [[Georges Braque|Braque]] and [[Picasso]].<ref>Néret 1993, p. 102.</ref> |
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===1914–1920=== |
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[[File:Fernand Leger, 1918, Dans L'Usine, oil on canvas, 56 x 38 cm (22 x 15 in).jpg|thumb|150px|''Dans L'Usine'', 1918, oil on canvas, 56 x 38 cm (22 x 15 in)]] |
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[[Image:Legar- The City 1919.jpg|thumb|''The City'', 1919, oil on canvas, The [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], A. E. Gallatin Collection]] |
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Léger's experiences in World War I had a significant effect on his work. Mobilized in August 1914 for service in the [[French Army]], he spent two years at the front in [[Forest of Argonne|Argonne]].<ref>Néret 1993, p. 242.</ref> He produced many sketches of artillery pieces, airplanes, and fellow soldiers while in the trenches, and painted ''Soldier with a Pipe'' (1916) while on furlough. In September 1916 he almost died after a [[mustard gas]] attack by the [[German Empire|German]] troops at [[Verdun]]. During a period of convalescence in [[Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis|Villepinte]] he painted ''The Card Players'' (1917), a canvas whose robot-like, monstrous figures reflect the ambivalence of his experience of war. As he explained:<blockquote>...I was stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic of light on the white metal. That's all it took for me to forget the abstract art of 1912–1913. The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perfection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and its application in the midst of the life-and-death drama we were in ... made me want to paint in slang with all its color and mobility.<ref>Néret 1993, p. 66.</ref></blockquote> This work marked the beginning of his "mechanical period", during which the figures and objects he painted were characterized by sleekly rendered tubular and machine-like forms. Starting in 1918, he also produced the first paintings in the ''Disk'' series, in which disks suggestive of traffic lights figure prominently.<ref>Buck 1982, p. 141.</ref> In December 1919 he married Jeanne-Augustine Lohy, and in 1920 he met [[Le Corbusier]], who would remain a lifelong friend. |
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===1920s=== |
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[[Image:Leger beer mug.jpg|thumb|150px|''Still Life with a Beer Mug'', 1921, oil on canvas, the [[Tate]]]] |
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The "mechanical" works Léger painted in the 1920s, in their formal clarity as well as in their subject matter—the mother and child, the female nude, figures in an ordered landscape—are typical of the postwar "[[return to order]]" in the arts, and link him to the tradition of French figurative painting represented by [[Poussin]] and [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot|Corot]].<ref>Cowling and Mundy 1990, pp. 136–138.</ref> In his ''paysages animés'' (animated landscapes) of 1921, figures and animals exist harmoniously in landscapes made up of streamlined forms. The frontal compositions, firm contours, and smoothly blended colors of these paintings frequently recall the works of [[Henri Rousseau]], an artist Léger greatly admired and whom he had met in 1909. |
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They also share traits with the work of Le Corbusier and [[Amédée Ozenfant]] who together had founded [[Purism]], a style intended as a rational, mathematically based corrective to the impulsiveness of cubism. Combining the classical with the modern, Léger's ''Nude on a Red Background'' (1927) depicts a monumental, expressionless woman, machinelike in form and color. His still life compositions from this period are dominated by stable, interlocking rectangular formations in vertical and horizontal orientation. ''The Siphon'' of 1924, a still life based on an advertisement in the popular press for the aperitif Campari, represents the high-water mark of the Purist aesthetic in Léger's work.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 37.</ref> Its balanced composition and fluted shapes suggestive of classical columns are brought together with a quasi-cinematic [[close-up]] of a hand holding a bottle. |
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As an enthusiast of the modern, Léger was greatly attracted to [[Film|cinema]], and for a time he considered giving up painting for filmmaking.<ref>Néret 1993, p. 119.</ref> In 1923–24 he designed the set for the laboratory scene in Marcel L'Herbier's ''[[L'Inhumaine]]'' (The Inhuman One). In 1924, in collaboration with [[Dudley Murphy]], [[George Antheil]], and [[Man Ray]], Léger produced and directed the iconic and [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]]-influenced film, ''[[Ballet Mécanique]]'' (Mechanical Ballet). Neither abstract nor narrative, it is a series of images of a woman's lips and teeth, close-up shots of ordinary objects, and repeated images of human activities and machines in rhythmic movement.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 44.</ref> |
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In collaboration with Amédée Ozenfant he established a free school where he taught from 1924, with [[Alexandra Exter]] and [[Marie Laurencin]]. He produced the first of his "mural paintings", influenced by Le Corbusier's theories, in 1925. Intended to be incorporated into polychrome architecture, they are among his most abstract paintings, featuring flat areas of color that appear to advance or recede.<ref>Eliel 2001, p. 58.</ref> |
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===1930s=== |
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Starting in 1927, the character of Léger's work gradually changed as organic and irregular forms assumed greater importance.<ref>Cowling and Mundy 1990, p 144.</ref> The figural style that emerged in the 1930s is fully displayed in the ''Two Sisters'' of 1935, and in several versions of ''Adam and Eve''.<ref>Buck 1982, p. 23.</ref> With characteristic humor, he portrayed Adam in a striped bathing suit, or sporting a tattoo. |
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In 1931, Léger made his first visit to the United States, where he traveled to New York City and Chicago.<ref>Néret 1993, p. 246.</ref> In 1935, the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York City presented an exhibition of his work. In 1938, Léger was commissioned to decorate [[Nelson Rockefeller]]'s apartment.<ref>Buck 1982, p. 48.</ref> |
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===The War years=== |
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During World War II Léger lived in the United States. He taught at [[Yale University]], and found inspiration for a new series of paintings in the novel sight of industrial refuse in the landscape. The shock of juxtaposed natural forms and mechanical elements, the "tons of abandoned machines with flowers cropping up from within, and birds perching on top of them" exemplified what he called the "law of contrast".<ref>Néret 1993, pp. 210–217.</ref> His enthusiasm for such contrasts resulted in such works as ''The Tree in the Ladder'' of 1943–44, and ''Romantic Landscape'' of 1946. A major work of 1944, ''Three Musicians'' (Museum of Modern Art, New York), reprises a composition of 1930. A folk-like composition reminiscent of Rousseau, it exploits the law of contrasts in its realistic juxtaposition of the three men and their instruments. |
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Upon his return to France in 1945, he joined the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Buck 1982, p. 143.</ref> During this period his work became less abstract, and he produced many monumental figure compositions depicting scenes of popular life featuring acrobats, builders, divers, and country outings. Art historian Charlotta Kotik has written that Léger's "determination to depict the common man, as well as to create for him, was a result of socialist theories widespread among the avant-garde both before and after World War II. However, Léger's social conscience was not that of a fierce Marxist, but of a passionate humanist".<ref>Buck 1982, p. 58.</ref> His varied projects included book illustrations, murals, stained-glass windows, mosaics, polychrome ceramic sculptures, and set and costume designs. |
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===1950s=== |
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[[Image:Leger-UCV.JPG|thumb|right|[[Stained-glass]] window at the [[Central University of Venezuela]], c.1950s]] |
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After the death of his wife in 1950, Léger married Nadia Khodossevitch in 1952. In his final years he lectured in [[Bern]], designed mosaics and stained-glass windows for the [[Central University of Venezuela]] in [[Caracas]], [[Venezuela]], and painted ''Country Outing'', ''The Camper'', and the series ''The Big Parade''. In 1954 he began a project for a mosaic for the [[São Paulo]] Opera, which he would not live to finish. Fernand Léger died at his home in 1955 and is buried in [[Gif-sur-Yvette]], [[Essonne]]. |
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==Legacy== |
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Léger wrote in 1945 that "the ''object'' in modern painting must become the ''main character'' and overthrow the subject. If, in turn, the human form becomes an object, it can considerably liberate possibilities for the modern artist." He elaborated on this idea in his 1949 essay, "How I Conceive the Human Figure", where he wrote that "abstract art came as a complete revelation, and then we were able to consider the human figure as a plastic value, not as a sentimental value. That is why the human figure has remained willfully inexpressive throughout the evolution of my work".<ref>Néret 1993, p. 98.</ref> As the first painter to take as his idiom the imagery of the machine age, and to make the objects of consumer society the subjects of his paintings, Léger has been called a progenitor of [[Pop art]].<ref>Buck 1982, p. 42.</ref> |
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He was active as a teacher for many years. Among his pupils were [[Nadir Afonso]], [[Robert Colescott]], [[Paul Georges]], [[Charlotte Gilbertson]], [[Hananiah Harari]], [[Asger Jorn]], [[Michael Loew]], [[Beverly Pepper]], [[Victor Reinganum]], [[Marcel Mouly]], George L. K. Morris, [[René Margotton]], [[Erik Olson]], [[Saloua Raouda Choucair]] and [[Charlotte Wankel]]. |
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In 1952, a pair of Léger murals was installed in the General Assembly Hall of the [[United Nations headquarters]] in [[New York City|New York]], [[New York]].<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_n4_v27/ai_9281044/ ''An 'element of inspiration and calm' at UN Headquarters - art in the life of the United Nations''] Retrieved October 13, 2010</ref> |
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In 1960, the Musée Fernand Léger was opened in [[Biot, Alpes-Maritimes]],France. |
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In November 2003, his painting, ''La femme en rouge et vert'' sold for $22,407,500 [[United States dollar]]s. Sales prices of his sculptures have exceeded 8 million dollars. |
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In August 2008, one of Léger's paintings owned by [[Wellesley College]]'s Davis Museum, ''Mother and Child'', was reported missing. It is believed to have disappeared some time between April 9, 2007 and November 19, 2007. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the safe return of the painting.<ref>[http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/08/27/a_masterwork_goes_missing/?page=1 www.boston.com]</ref> |
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==Gallery== |
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<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="3"> |
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Image:Leger railway crossing.jpg|''The Railway Crossing'', 1919, oil on canvas, 53.8 x 64.8 cm, [[The Art Institute of Chicago]] |
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File:Man and Woman by Fernand Leger.jpg|''Man and Woman'', 1921, oil on canvas, [[Indianapolis Museum of Art]] |
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File:Fernand Léger - Grand parade with red background (mosaic) 1958 made.jpg|''Grand parade with red background'', 1958 (designed in 1953), mosaic, [[:en:National Gallery of Victoria|National Gallery of Victoria]] (NGV), Australia |
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</gallery> |
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==References and sources== |
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;References |
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{{reflist|2}} |
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;Sources |
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*Bartorelli, Guido (2011). ''Fernand Léger cubista 1909-1914''. Padova, Italy: Cleup. ISBN 978-88-6129-656-5. |
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*Buck, Robert T. et al. (1982). ''Fernand Léger''. New York: Abbeville Publishers. ISBN 0-89659-254-5. |
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*Cowling, Elizabeth; Mundy, Jennifer (1990). ''On Classic Ground: Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism 1910-1930''. London: Tate Gallery. ISBN 1-85437-043-X. |
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*Eliel, Carol S. et al. (2001). ''L'Esprit Nouveau: Purism in Paris, 1918-1925''. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-6727-8. |
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*Léger, Fernand (1973). ''Functions of Painting''. New York: Viking Press. Translation by Alexandra Anderson. |
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*Léger, Fernand (2009). ''F.Léger''. exhibition catalogue. Paris: Galerie Malingue. ISBN 2-9518323-4-6. |
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*Néret, Gilles (1993). ''F. Léger''. New York: BDD Illustrated Books. ISBN 0-7924-5848-6. |
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==External links== |
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{{Wikiquote}} |
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{{Commons category|Fernand Léger}} |
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* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/leger_fernand.html Artcyclopedia] - Links to Léger's works |
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* {{MoMA artist|6624}} |
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* [http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/leger.html Artchive] - Biography and images of Léger's works |
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* [http://tesla.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/tuner.php?channel=1100&format=movie&theme=guide Ballet Mecanique] - Watch Fernand Léger's Short Film |
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* [[wikilivres:Fernand Léger|Paintings by Fernand Léger]] (public domain in Canada) |
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{{Authority control|VIAF=34459370}} |
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{{Persondata |
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| NAME = Leger, Fernand |
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| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = French painter |
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| DATE OF BIRTH = February 4, 1881 |
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| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Argentan]], [[Orne]] |
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| DATE OF DEATH = August 17, 1955 |
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| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Gif-sur-Yvette]] |
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}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leger, Fernand}} |
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[[Category:1881 births]] |
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[[Category:1955 deaths]] |
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[[Category:People from Argentan]] |
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[[Category:19th-century French painters]] |
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[[Category:20th-century French painters]] |
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[[Category:Alumni of the Académie Julian]] |
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[[Category:Ballet designers]] |
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[[Category:Ballets designed by Fernand Léger| ]] |
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[[Category:Cubist artists]] |
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[[Category:French film directors]] |
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[[Category:French military personnel of World War I]] |
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[[Category:Modern painters]] |
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[[Category:Orphism]] |
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[[Category:Purism]] |
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