Sixty Works by Modern Masters - Flipbook - Page 75
Fernand Léger
"I organise the opposition between colours,
lines and curves. I set curves against straight
lines, patches of colour against plastic forms,
pure colours against subtly nuanced shades of
grey."
Fernand Léger
French, 1881 - 1955
L'Anniversaire, 1950
Gouache and India ink over pencil on paper
Sheet size: 29½ x 21 inches / 74.8 x 55 cm
Image size: 18 x 16½ inches / 48 x 42 cm
Signed with initials lower right: FL
Authenticated on the reverse by Nadia Léger and Georges Bauquier (no G581-20B)
Stamped on the reverse: Musée National Fernand Léger
Léger visited New York several times
before settling there during the
Second World War. Between 1940
and 1945 he influenced many New
York School painters, and oversaw
a lecture series at Yale on ‘Colour
in Architecture.’ A number of major
works were commissioned from
the artist during his time there, by
patrons such as Nelson Rockefeller
and the architect Wallace K.
Harrison. The present example,
completed five years after Léger left
the USA, testifies to his enduring
passion for New York’s modernist
buildings, and for the technological
spirit and dynamic society that he
felt characterised the metropolis.
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As distinct from some of Léger’s
earlier works which depict humans
as machine-like, L’Anniversaire
employs carefully-placed plant
imagery to emphasise the natural
and organic contours of the human
figure.
Provenance
Galerie Duchaudon, Paris
John Carter Galleries, Austin
Anon. sale, Christie’s New York, 12 May, 1988, lot 187
Jeffrey H. Loria collection, New York
This painting is no. G581-20B in the archives of
the Musée National Fernand Léger, Biot and is
accompanied by a certificate of authentication
kindly issued by Irus Hansma