Fernand Léger

Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Private Collection (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Caracas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Fernand Léger, 1982, no. 41
Paris, Galerie Denise René, Carte blanche à Denise René, 1984, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Salzburg, Rupertinum Museum Moderner Kunst, Fernand Léger, L'Esprit Moderne, 2002, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Max Beckmann - Fernand Léger. Unerwartete Begegnungen, 2005, no. 68, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Serge Fauchereau, Fernand Léger: A Painter in the City, New York & Barcelona, 1994, no. 84, illustrated in colour
Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1932-1937, Paris, 1996, no. 906, illustrated in colour p. 192

The canvas is unlined. There are two small spots of retouching in the yellow background in the upper left; a small area of retouching across the white and black areas in the lower left quadrant, corresponding to a fine repaired tear on the reverse of the canvas; and some spots and thin lines of retouching at the extreme edges, visible under ultra-violet light. There are some very fine horizonal crease marks in the upper left quadrant. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the whites are slightly cleaner in the original.
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During the late 1930s, Léger's work focused largely on international interior design projects, and his paintings from this period often incorporated the crisp imagery that he devised for these purposes. In 1937, he designed stage sets for the Paris Opéra, as well as decorations for the Trade Union Congress at the Vélodrome d'Hiver and the Transport des Forces for the Palais de Découverte in Paris. Léger continued to work in this capacity in 1938, when he was commissioned to decorate the apartment of Nelson Rockefeller in New York. These various design projects reflect a particular decorative flair in many of the artist's formal compositions on canvas, including the present work.

 

Léger's compositions executed around this time were populated with images of the natural world, such as butterflies, flowers and underwater plants. In Composition au fond jaune, the dominating forms are all painted in strong, unmodulated colours, delineated in black and silhouetted against a flat red and yellow background. According to Léger, these are the colours that express the reality of the medium of painting. Rather than imitating nature, the artist was interested in exploring the language of painting in its fullest and purest form, thus reducing his vocabulary to the elements of colour and form. As a result, Léger's composition defies a sense of gravity and transcends the earth-bound nature of a traditional landscape or still-life.