Lot 20
  • 20

Fernand Léger

Estimate
400,000 - 600,000 GBP
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Description

  • Fernand Léger
  • COMPOSITION AUX DEUX PROFILS (LE CAMÉE)
  • signed F. LEGER and dated 47 (lower right); signed F. LEGER, titled and dated 47 on the reverse
  • oil on canvas
  • 73 by 92cm.
  • 28 3/4 by 36 1/4 in.

Provenance

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Charles Sorlier, Paris (acquired from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 25th June 1996, lot 186)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited

New York, Buchholz Gallery, Léger, Recent Paintings & Le Cirque, 1950, no. 9
London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Fernand Léger, Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, Ceramics, 1954-55, no. 25
São Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna, 3. São Paulo Bienal, 1955
Copenhagen, Charlottenborg, Fernand Léger, malerier, tegninger og grafik, 1959, no. 37, illustrated in the catalogue

Literature

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 2000, vol. VII, no. 1245, illustrated in colour p. 149

Condition

The canvas is unlined and there is no evidence of retouching under ultra-violet light. There is some very light paint shrinkage in the thicker impasto of the black pigment. Apart from a tiny spot of paint loss in the green pigment in the lower left, this work is in very good coondition. Colours: In comparison with the printed catalogue illustration, the colours are overall much deeper and stronger in the original. The background has a more pronounced yellow tonality, and the green is a more olive-green.
"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."

Catalogue Note

Composition aux deux profils combines everyday objects and forms usually found in Léger's still-lifes, with abstract forms. The artist painted all elements of the composition – the cactus, the engraving of two heads in profile, and the abstract shapes – in the same, two-dimensional manner, thus emphasising the flatness of the picture plane. Executed in large blocks of solid pigment, the work encapsulates Léger's belief in the key role of pure colour in his painting. Rather than representing a likeness of the world that surrounds him, the artist uses overlapping patches of colour as the principal element of the composition, creating new spatial relationships within the two-dimensional plane of the canvas.

 

Léger himself explained the abstract element of his painting: 'The realistic value of a work of art is completely independent of any imitative character. This truth should be accepted as dogma and made axiomatic in the general understanding of painting. [...] Pictorial realism is the simultaneous ordering of three great plastic components: Lines, Forms and Colours [...], the modern concept is not a reaction against the impressionists' idea but is, on the contrary, a further development and expansion of their aims through the use of methods they neglected. [...] Present-day life, more fragmented and faster moving than life in previous eras, has had to accept as its means of expression an art of dynamic divisionism; and the sentimental side, the expression of the subject (in the sense of popular expression), has reached a critical moment. [...] The modern conception is not simply a passing abstraction, valid only for a few initiates; it is the total expression of a new generation whose needs it shares and whose aspirations it answers' (quoted in Dorothy Kosinski (ed.), Fernand Léger, 1911-1924, The Rhythm of Modern Life, Munich & New York, 1994, pp. 66-67).