Fernand Léger

Musée Fernand Léger, Biot

Jeffrey H. Loria & Co., New York

Private Collection, United States (acquired from the above in 1988 and sold: Christie's, New York, May 4, 2005, lot 52)

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Acquired from the above in 2006

Vence, Château de Villeneuve, Fondation Emile Hagues, La Joie de Vivre, 1984

New York, Acquavella Galleries, Fernand Léger, 1987

London, Whitechapel Art Gallery & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Fernand Léger: The Later Years, 1987-88, no. 55, illustrated in color in the catalogue

The work is in very good condition. Original canvas. Under UV light, there are various areas of white fluorescing due to corrections made by the artist, no inpainting is apparent.
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.

Boldly modelled and elegantly executed, La joie de vivre is one of the artist's definitive compositions of the 1950s. Throughout the last years of his life, the dominant themes of Léger's paintings alternated between leisure subjects, such as bicycling and outings in the country, and images of manual labour, particularly of construction workers, which explore the relationship between man and industrialization. In contrast to the rarefied and elitist aesthetic of postwar abstraction, these paintings were intended to appeal to the public with more comprehensible, figurative style and relevant subject matter.  The subject of the 1955 La Joie de Vivre is particularly significant, as it expresses the universal sentiments of love and joy. Léger was fascinated with social progress, and the campers, construction workers, and circus performers that he painted in the 1950s celebrate the activities of modern life.

Of these mature works, Peter de Francia wrote: "In the last decade of his working life, Léger was completely absorbed in endeavouring to create a language in which a balance could be established between familiar imagery, an architectural function of painting, and themes stressing the permanence of man. The problem was an extraordinarily difficult one. The figures in his paintings could easily have become the equivalent of cult images. Léger avoided this by making them innately approachable. Intensity of reality is achieved by the contrast of prosaic objects with pictorial artifice" (P. de Francia, Fernand Léger, New Haven, 1983, p. 229).

In 1950, Léger wrote of the populist nature of his paintings and their importance within contemporary society: "We are witnessing a return to the broad subject, which must be comprehensible to the people. The people, tied down, bent over their work all day long, without leisure activities, are completely overlooked by our bourgeois epoch; that is the tragedy of today" (Fernand Léger, "Mural Painting and Easel Painting", in Functions of Painting, New York, 1950, p. 178).