Fernand Léger

Amédée Ozenfant, Paris and New York (acquired from the artist in 1922)

Stanley Barbee, Beverly Hills

Berggruen & Cie., Paris

Larry Aldrich, New York (sold: Parke-Bernet, New York, October 30, 1963, lot 17)

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Weisman, Beverly Hills (acquired at the above sale and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, October 14, 1965, lot 88)

Perls Galleries, New York

Harold Diamond, New York

Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above in 2001

Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Art; Atlanta Art Association Galleries; Albany Institute of History and Art,  Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture from the Larry Aldrich Collection, 1959-60, no. 25

Tulsa, Dallas and Los Angeles, American Federation of the Arts, The Aldrich Collection, 1960-62, no. 27

Berlin, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Fernand Léger, 1981, no. 35

Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Collects:  The Figure and the Landscape, 1870s-1980, 1990, no. 48 (as dating from 1912-22)

Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art, Painters and Poets, 1997 (as dating from 1912-22)

Arts Magazine, New York, January 1959, illustrated p. 38

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, 1920-1924, Paris, 1992, no. 339, illustrated p. 247

Very good condition. Under ultra-violet light there is some minor inpainting along the length of the extreme right edge and intermittently across the top edge which appears to be addressing some frame abrasion as well as a thin hairline running vertical of inpaint at the lower right quadrant. The great majority of the composition is untouched.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Released from the army in early 1918, Léger returned to painting with renewed energy and a new direction.  He wrote to Léonce Rosenberg, "As soon as I was freed, I started to profit from those difficult years: I've reached a decision, and I'm modeling in pure local color and on a large scale without making any concessions" (quoted in Fernand Léger, 1911-1924, The Rhythm of Modern Life, New York, 1994, p. 68). Léger's experience in the war brought him face to face with a world being transformed through technology, weaponry and manufactured goods.  His aims in painting upon his return thus moved away from the abstract, geometric forms and primary colors that dominated his paintings in the years before the war, toward renewed attention to the objects of the modern world.

The present painting shows the artist's use of the traditional subject of the still life transformed by the fragmentation of the objects and space.  Léger's concentration on primary color avoids the transitions of light and shadows that indicate volume and spatial relationships, emphasizing the layered, two-dimensional character of the composition.  Léger's new conception of his painted surface involved the ability to depict the fragmented immediacy of objects; the frenetic, simultaneity of modern life.