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FERNAND LEGER

 1. Home
 2. Artists
 3. Fernand Leger

Fernand Leger
 * Home
 * Biography
 * Paintings
   * Nudes in the Forest
   * Contrast of Forms
   * Naked model in the workshop
   * Soldier with a Pipe
   * Soldiers Playing Cards
   * The Railway Crossing
   * Woman with a Book
   * Umbrella and Bowler
   * Construction Workers
   * Still Life with a Beer Mug
 * Drawings
 * Prints
 * Quotes



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by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000


FERNAND LEGER PRODUCED HIS OWN PERSONALISED FORM OF CUBISM, CATEGORISED BY
PRIMARY COLOURS, SPHERICAL SHAPES AND A THREE DIMENSIONAL FINISH.

Leger artwork is characterised by robotically formed humans. This signature
style continued throughout his career, even when experimenting in other areas of
his work. The artist's career came at a time when man and machine were working
together in harmony like never before. The industrial age was in full swing and
Leger's paintings portrayed a comfortable combination. Beyond instantly
recognisable paintings such as Nudes in the Forest and Contrast of Forms, Leger
would take in all manner of influences into his career. These would show their
heads at various stages of his development.

An ambitious, open minded artist, Leger would make use of many different media
during his life including paint, ceramic, film, theatre and dance sets, glass,
print and book arts. There seemed no end to his innovation and desire to stretch
himself artistically. It was the the 1907 retrospective of Paul Cézanne at the
Salon d'Automne which started to encourage Leger into becoming bolder and more
experimental early in his career. Prior to this, his training at the Ecole des
Arts Décoratifs and Académie Julian in the French capital had produced a more
impressionist feel to his work. He clearly now felt empowered and inspired to
work more abstract and expressively. Monet was, naturally, the key influence on
the impressionist style early on. He was the master and driving force behind
that movement's rise to prominence. Artist Leger would also meet the likes of
Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau during his career and it is
clearly no coincidence that the former two were early exponents of the Cubist
art which he was himself so involved.

In the early 20th century Fernand would slowly build recognition for his cubist
paintings through regular exhibitions across Paris. His style was unique but
close enough to other Cubists like Picasso, Braque and Gris for him to be
grouped together with them. Wassily Kandinsky is believed to also have inspired
the development of Leger, with another Russian, Kazimir Malevich, also producing
work which bears resemblances to this artist's own. Specifically the prime
colours of the two artists draw obvious comparisons. Artist Leger wanted to see
art as accessible to all. This anti-establishment feeling was rife amongst
artists of the 20th century and represented a general resentment towards the
established classes. Academic styles of art had been losing popularity for many
centuries, with the likes of Leger, Miro, Rothko and Pollock now seeking to
truly complete the transformation. The Pop Art movement which includes Warhol,
Lichtenstein and Hockney found inspiration from this fresh way of thinking,
incorporating pop culture to continue this development ever onwards. Indeed,
Neo-expressionist, Basquiat, underlines how art was now starting to spread into
the American minorities for the first time.

It was around the 1910s that several Leger exhibitions would help to establish
his reputation as a Cubist painter, a movement which would become highly
significant over the coming decades. He was then drawn into WWI in which he
experienced several incidents and injuries that would inspire several changes in
the content that he included in his paintings, if not the style which was
already starting to solidify. It was the human figure which remained most in his
mind after the extraordinary experiences of serving in the war, in the
relationships that he had and also the horrors of things that he witnessed. This
impact was common on many artists, with some sadly never even returning from
service, such was the huge number of fatalities that occurred. It was then
around the early 1920s that machinery would start to theme most of his cubist
paintings and this was a direct influence from Le Corbusier who already held
similar interests in terms of artistic content.

The artist would continue to work productively throughout the 1920s and would
also sometimes indicate influence from the Futurism movement as well. He started
to turn his attention to other creative outlets as well, such as book
illustrations. He also became involved in theatrical productions, where his
talents would be divided between costume and stage design, two very different
disciplines that came together within each show. Film and photography were
growing interests at the time for many and he eventually worked on a film
production of his own, titled Ballet Mechanique, in 1924. He would direct this
piece, and collaborated with the likes of Dudley Murphy, George Antheil and Man
Ray on this project. His growing reputation was allowing all manner of different
projects to be put in front of him in the form of varied commissions, many of
which he took on in the spirit of curiosity and experimentation. He did not want
to only be seen as a painter or draughtsman, but as a well rounded artist with a
variety of skills.

If you examine the work of Leger across the 1920s you will find an interesting
variety of influences. Some of the types of content found during this period
will remind us of French figurative art from several centuries previous, such as
from the likes of Poussin and Corot. Specifically, that is the the choices of
mother and child portraits as well as figures within the countryside in
carefully planned compositions. On the other hand we are also aware of the
relationship between this artist and Henri Rousseau, a member of the Primitive
movement who was entirely self-trained - his background could not be any
different to the others mentioned here, but some technical aspects of his work
were also merged into the unique approach used by Leger. Indeed, both of these
individuals continue to be appreciate, even loved by many art followers in the
present day, particularly within the younger generations who tend to be more
interested in contemporary art than any other period.

By the 1940s the artist would spend time teaching within the US as he sought
refuge from WWII. Speaking to younger audiences perhaps renewed his enthusiasm
and he continued to work on new ideas. He chose to return to France once the war
had finished and became politically active, perhaps with the hope that the awful
recent period of history could be learnt from and never repeated. In revealing
his socialist leanings, we are given a clue as to some of the reasons for the
content that he used in previous decades. His concentration on the common man
links closely with many of the principles of left-wing politics and his views
would have been shared by many other artists in France at this time, where such
ideas were commonplace and openly discussed. He was described as being concerned
about humanity in general, rather than being particularly aligned to a specific
manifesto and so would be unlikely to have expressed his views aggressively to
others.

Leger would continue to lecture into the 1950s and found work doing so in
Switzerland. His wife passed away but he re-married just two years later, in
1952. He took on some commissions in Venezuela and Brazil but by this time was
approaching his last days. It is impressive to see how active and well travelled
he remained right up until his own death in 1955. He had already established his
name within the upper reaches of art history and Leger continues to be highly
regarded today, with his work being considered both influential but also highly
unique and contemporary. His combination of Cubism and mechanised content was
entirely fresh and even today makes his work from that period be instantly
recognisable as his own. Whilst he shared many ideas in a technical sense with
other artists of the early to mid 20th century, the way in which he delivered
them to the canvas was clearly different. Academics have also found the overall
movement of Cubism to be a movement worth teaching in depth, with this artist's
name featuring prominently in most cases.


ARTICLE AUTHOR



Tom Gurney in an art history expert. He received a BSc (Hons) degree from
Salford University, UK, and has also studied famous artists and art movements
for over 20 years. Tom has also published a number of books related to art
history and continues to contribute to a number of different art websites. You
can read more on Tom Gurney here.

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