Fernand Léger

Galerie Louis Carré, Paris
Sale: Sotheby & Co., London, April 24, 1963, lot 77
Acquired at the above sale

Chicago, Institute of Design & Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Exhibition of Paintings by Fernand Léger, 1944, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Valentine Gallery, New Paintings, 1944, no. 9
Paris, Galerie Louis Carré, F. Léger, Oeuvres d'Amérique 1940-1945, 1946, no. 18
Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, UNESCO, Exposition international d'art moderne, 1946, no. 75

Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Catalogue raisonné 1938-1943, Paris, 1998, no. 1131, illustrated p. 247

The canvas is not lined and remains on its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean and the pigments are bright and fresh. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent. Scattered remnants of a thin glaze fluoresce faintly. This work is in very good condition.
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.

Frances Coles, a fine art connoisseur from New York with an extraordinary eye for the early modern, assembled the lion’s share of her collection in the 1960s and 1970s, buying primarily at auction and often in collaboration with her companion Barnett Shine. The array of artwork represented here (lots 320-325) offers but a glimpse into the breadth and sophistication of Mrs. Coles’ collecting taste. The group, which also includes an exquisite cast of Auguste Rodin’s Eve offered in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on May 5, 2015, is highlighted by Fernand Léger’s 1943 China Town, a profound expression of modernizing form and color, as well as Pavel Tchelitchew’s 1934 Toreador, an exceedingly rare example of the Neo-Romantic Surrealist artist’s large-scale oeuvre from his brief sojourn to Spain. Also highlighting the collection is a superb pair of early modern sculptures by Georg Kolbe and Antoine Bourdelle, as well as two elegant works on paper by Aristide Maillol and Paul Signac.

Léger painted China Town during his extended visit to the United States during World War II, where he found much visual inspiration in the mechanized and vertical city streets of New York and focused primarily on his series of paintings of Plongeurs (see lot 147); he further spent much of early 1943 collaborating with documentarian Thomas Bouchard in his New York studio for the making of the film Fernand Léger in America, His New Realism.

The countenance of at least one of Léger's archetypal plongeurs may be found at the lower center of the present composition, against an abstracted plane of black perhaps evocative in form of the pagodas or upturned roofs found in Chinese architecture, while much of the urban imagery in the background gives way to geometric abstraction. The two-word title, China Town, was endearingly selected by the artist, whose proficiency in English improved dramatically during his stay in the United States.