Fernand LEGER (1881-1955)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1910-1919 1912 1913 1914 1921 1922
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1910-1919 1912 1913 1914 1921 1922
double sided
1911-1912 Fumées sur les Toits and 1912-1913 Le 14 Juillet
2023 SOLD for $ 17.6M by Phillips
The important retrospective exhibition devoted to Cézanne in 1907 at the Grand Palais is a revelation for young artists who want to escape from post-impressionism. Painting is a construction that can be inspired by nature or object but must not claim to copy them. In such an assembly, the basic element is geometric and the use of pure colors is desired.
Under the watchful eye of Apollinaire the young artists are trying to define the pure painting. The avant-gardes need a prophet. They find Cézanne's statement that nature can be represented by the cylinder, the cone and the sphere. The new art will be based on a grammar of elementary forms associated with pure colors. Each artist develops a personal style.
Fernand Léger is obsessed with this posthumous teaching by Cézanne. In 1909 his Compotier sur table crushes the volumes in a plunging vision.
Fernand Léger's creative desire is limitless. In his large oil on canvas Nus dans la forêt painted in 1910 and revealed in 1911 at the Salon des Indépendants, he anticipates in a landscape the solutions of analytical cubism. He appreciates that if the composition becomes pre-eminent over the theme, painting can become an absolute art, free from sentimentalism and mysticism.
Léger admires the advances made by Cézanne while wanting to escape his theories. Geometric construction is indeed no more than a technique. The introduction of movement in painting by the Futurists is promising but remains anecdotal. Painting needs nothing else than displaying pure lines, shapes and colors which will capture the interest of the viewer by their own rhythm.
Cubism was born in 1911 in Puteaux around the Duchamp brothers. Modern life is intense, to the rhythm of automobiles, planes and machines. The realistic figuration is now out of date. The analytical cubism by Picasso and Braque reduces the legibility of the figuration in an attempt to promote an emotion.
Cézanne had not reached abstraction. From 1911, for liberating his art from the influence of his predecessor, Léger indifferently applies his new pictorial grammar to a range of works between figurative and abstract. The title guides the observer to look for the form. Within three years, he prepares three major works inspired by this trend : les Fumeurs, la Femme en bleu, le Modèle nu dans l'atelier.
In 1911 Léger settles in a new studio. From that year he executes a series of pre-Cubist paintings titled Fumées sur les toits displaying the view from his window towards Notre-Dame de Paris beyond the contrasting clouds of smoke from the chimney pots.
Painted in 1912-1913, Le 14 Juillet is a trial to introduce the bright blue white red of the French flag in a composition that includes a column that may be the Bastille. The mixing of the colors remind the impressionist Fête du 30 juin 1878 rue Montorgueil by Monet.
The verso of that canvas 60 x 46 cm had been obstructed by an opaque grayish material. It was in the practice of Léger in that period to scrap the works that did not meet his target of perfection. It was announced in 2022 by Dutch experts that the removal of the coating had revealed an unknown well colored version of Fumées sur les Toits. That picture in poor condition has been professionally restored.
The double sided painting was sold for $ 17.6M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 10.
Under the watchful eye of Apollinaire the young artists are trying to define the pure painting. The avant-gardes need a prophet. They find Cézanne's statement that nature can be represented by the cylinder, the cone and the sphere. The new art will be based on a grammar of elementary forms associated with pure colors. Each artist develops a personal style.
Fernand Léger is obsessed with this posthumous teaching by Cézanne. In 1909 his Compotier sur table crushes the volumes in a plunging vision.
Fernand Léger's creative desire is limitless. In his large oil on canvas Nus dans la forêt painted in 1910 and revealed in 1911 at the Salon des Indépendants, he anticipates in a landscape the solutions of analytical cubism. He appreciates that if the composition becomes pre-eminent over the theme, painting can become an absolute art, free from sentimentalism and mysticism.
Léger admires the advances made by Cézanne while wanting to escape his theories. Geometric construction is indeed no more than a technique. The introduction of movement in painting by the Futurists is promising but remains anecdotal. Painting needs nothing else than displaying pure lines, shapes and colors which will capture the interest of the viewer by their own rhythm.
Cubism was born in 1911 in Puteaux around the Duchamp brothers. Modern life is intense, to the rhythm of automobiles, planes and machines. The realistic figuration is now out of date. The analytical cubism by Picasso and Braque reduces the legibility of the figuration in an attempt to promote an emotion.
Cézanne had not reached abstraction. From 1911, for liberating his art from the influence of his predecessor, Léger indifferently applies his new pictorial grammar to a range of works between figurative and abstract. The title guides the observer to look for the form. Within three years, he prepares three major works inspired by this trend : les Fumeurs, la Femme en bleu, le Modèle nu dans l'atelier.
In 1911 Léger settles in a new studio. From that year he executes a series of pre-Cubist paintings titled Fumées sur les toits displaying the view from his window towards Notre-Dame de Paris beyond the contrasting clouds of smoke from the chimney pots.
Painted in 1912-1913, Le 14 Juillet is a trial to introduce the bright blue white red of the French flag in a composition that includes a column that may be the Bastille. The mixing of the colors remind the impressionist Fête du 30 juin 1878 rue Montorgueil by Monet.
The verso of that canvas 60 x 46 cm had been obstructed by an opaque grayish material. It was in the practice of Léger in that period to scrap the works that did not meet his target of perfection. It was announced in 2022 by Dutch experts that the removal of the coating had revealed an unknown well colored version of Fumées sur les Toits. That picture in poor condition has been professionally restored.
The double sided painting was sold for $ 17.6M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 10.
1913 Contraste de Formes
2017 SOLD for $ 70M by Christie's
Like Kandinsky in Murnau, Léger conducts in parallel his pictorial trials and his theoretical research.
He completes his post-Cézanne exorcism by preparing a few works with an abstract title, the series of Contrastes de Formes, which are his contribution to the birth of non-figurative art. He goes much further than Kandinsky and precedes Mondrian and Malevich : art can be abstract without any need to rely on a figurative sketch.
In 1913 and 1914 he achieves about fourteen Contrastes de Formes. A contract with Kahnweiler brings him stability in his living conditions. The support by this merchant also slows down his habit of destroying his own works when the artistic effect does not respond to his perfectionist desire.
On November 13, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 70M as lot 14A a Contraste de Formes painted in 1913, oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The rejection of the narrative does not prevent the expression of life. Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on burlap 81 x 100 cm painted in 1913, looks at first glance like a Contraste de Formes but becomes readable by a moderate effort. It passed at Christie's on June 18, 2019, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's Paris @christiesparis Oct 18, 2017
En quoi ce Contraste de forme de Fernand Léger, exposé aujourd'hui chez #ChristiesParis, est-il extraordinaire ? http://ow.ly/jA0j30fXOVe
He completes his post-Cézanne exorcism by preparing a few works with an abstract title, the series of Contrastes de Formes, which are his contribution to the birth of non-figurative art. He goes much further than Kandinsky and precedes Mondrian and Malevich : art can be abstract without any need to rely on a figurative sketch.
In 1913 and 1914 he achieves about fourteen Contrastes de Formes. A contract with Kahnweiler brings him stability in his living conditions. The support by this merchant also slows down his habit of destroying his own works when the artistic effect does not respond to his perfectionist desire.
On November 13, 2017, Christie's sold for $ 70M as lot 14A a Contraste de Formes painted in 1913, oil on burlap 92 x 73 cm. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The rejection of the narrative does not prevent the expression of life. Femme dans un fauteuil, oil on burlap 81 x 100 cm painted in 1913, looks at first glance like a Contraste de Formes but becomes readable by a moderate effort. It passed at Christie's on June 18, 2019, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's Paris @christiesparis Oct 18, 2017
En quoi ce Contraste de forme de Fernand Léger, exposé aujourd'hui chez #ChristiesParis, est-il extraordinaire ? http://ow.ly/jA0j30fXOVe
- This 2017 X post from Christie's Paris previews the exhibition of Fernand Léger's 1913 oil on burlap "Contraste de formes," a rare abstract work from his pivotal series exploring geometric contrasts and pictorial dynamism amid Cubism's evolution.
- The painting's significance lies in Léger's innovative use of cylindrical and planar forms with bold colors and lines, creating rhythmic tension between volume and flatness, as articulated in his contemporary lectures on "pictorial realism."
- Acquired via Galerie Kahnweiler and later loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it sold for a record $70 million at Christie's November 2017 auction, highlighting its enduring value in modern art history.
1913 La Femme en Bleu
2008 SOLD for $ 39M by Sotheby's
Art needs a renewal that is compatible with technical progress. Each of the painters of this avant-garde imagines another solution, but they need to be together in the exhibitions to appeal the public. Cubisme is a disparate movement, fiercely opposed to the impressionnisme.
Fernand Léger is a rebel. In 1910 he wanted to push further than Cézanne the construction of a composition in geometric elements. The sly critics refer to him as a tubiste. He has to find something else. He does not follow the futurism because the expression of a motion is not matching his desire for pure painting.
La Femme en bleu is a series of three oils on canvas. The first, 131 x 99 cm, dated 1912, is titled Esquisse pour La Femme en bleu. According to the principles of analytical cubism, the elements constituting a seated woman are recognizable. The novelty from this style is the large bright blue surface of the garment. La Femme en bleu proper, dated in the same year, is an enlargement to 193 x 130 cm with a significant loss of readability.
These first two Femme en Bleu are indeed the switch into abstraction of a cubist work based on a classic theme. Helped by the position of the sitter in La Dame en Bleu painted by Cézanne, the observer mentally reconstructs Léger's woman around her bright blue garment.
In 1913 Kandinsky, Kupka and Mondrian also cross over the boundaries of figuration, each of them with another motivation. Léger is the first cubist to attempt a total abstraction based on the rhythm of colors, with his Contrastes de formes.
Balancing on the border between narrative and abstraction, Léger manages a reverted move in which the forms of the woman reappear. The third opus, also titled Esquisse pour la Femme en bleu, is not dated 1913 but 12-13 to mark the date of the initial conception. The facial features and the toothbrush glass next to the sink, similar to the first Esquisse, anticipate the definitive come back by Léger to figuration. This ultimate version, 130 x 97 cm, was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 16.
Fernand Léger is a rebel. In 1910 he wanted to push further than Cézanne the construction of a composition in geometric elements. The sly critics refer to him as a tubiste. He has to find something else. He does not follow the futurism because the expression of a motion is not matching his desire for pure painting.
La Femme en bleu is a series of three oils on canvas. The first, 131 x 99 cm, dated 1912, is titled Esquisse pour La Femme en bleu. According to the principles of analytical cubism, the elements constituting a seated woman are recognizable. The novelty from this style is the large bright blue surface of the garment. La Femme en bleu proper, dated in the same year, is an enlargement to 193 x 130 cm with a significant loss of readability.
These first two Femme en Bleu are indeed the switch into abstraction of a cubist work based on a classic theme. Helped by the position of the sitter in La Dame en Bleu painted by Cézanne, the observer mentally reconstructs Léger's woman around her bright blue garment.
In 1913 Kandinsky, Kupka and Mondrian also cross over the boundaries of figuration, each of them with another motivation. Léger is the first cubist to attempt a total abstraction based on the rhythm of colors, with his Contrastes de formes.
Balancing on the border between narrative and abstraction, Léger manages a reverted move in which the forms of the woman reappear. The third opus, also titled Esquisse pour la Femme en bleu, is not dated 1913 but 12-13 to mark the date of the initial conception. The facial features and the toothbrush glass next to the sink, similar to the first Esquisse, anticipate the definitive come back by Léger to figuration. This ultimate version, 130 x 97 cm, was sold for $ 39M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 16.
1914 Nature Morte
2020 SOLD for £ 12.2M by Sotheby's
The analytical cubism of Picasso and Braque is going further and Léger seeks something else to stand out. He finds the contrasts, by which the viewer will look in a tangle of lines, forms and colors for a reality beyond the intention of the artist. In this leap forwards, he unintentionally becomes one of the pioneers of abstract art.
In 1913 and 1914 Léger manages in parallel his series of Contrastes de Formes and the reinjection of his observations in typically Cézannian themes like the Femme en bleu and the Still lifes. The figures reappear within a big mess.
In 1914 Léger places objects on table corners : alarm clocks, coffee pots. His modernist effort resulted in a style quite similar as the early Picasso Cubism from five years earlier. It is not Léger but Gris who then gives back to still life the comfort of interpretation that the public needed.
Léger was not freed from his obsessions, however. In 1917 he painted Les Joueurs de Cartes, a reinterpretation of the Cézannian theme in a "tubiste" style.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 12.2M from a lower estimate of £ 8M a Nature Morte by Léger displaying various barely discernible objects on a table, oil on burlap 80 x 65 cm painted in 1914, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1913 and 1914 Léger manages in parallel his series of Contrastes de Formes and the reinjection of his observations in typically Cézannian themes like the Femme en bleu and the Still lifes. The figures reappear within a big mess.
In 1914 Léger places objects on table corners : alarm clocks, coffee pots. His modernist effort resulted in a style quite similar as the early Picasso Cubism from five years earlier. It is not Léger but Gris who then gives back to still life the comfort of interpretation that the public needed.
Léger was not freed from his obsessions, however. In 1917 he painted Les Joueurs de Cartes, a reinterpretation of the Cézannian theme in a "tubiste" style.
On July 28, 2020, Sotheby's sold for £ 12.2M from a lower estimate of £ 8M a Nature Morte by Léger displaying various barely discernible objects on a table, oil on burlap 80 x 65 cm painted in 1914, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1914 Composition
2025 for sale on November 17 by Christie's
Composition, subtitled Nature Morte, oil on burlap 80 x 65 cm painted in 1914 by Fernand Léger, is estimated $ 15M for sale by Christie's on November 17, 2025, lot 45A.
Asking Grok to compare it with Nature Morte sold for £ 12.2M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 28.
Grok thought :
Overview
Both artworks are by Fernand Léger, a French painter known for his contributions to Cubism and his distinctive style blending mechanical forms, bold colors, and abstract elements. These pieces, both titled variations on "Nature Morte" (still life), date from 1914—a pivotal year in Léger's career when he was exploring contrasts of forms and colors just before World War I. They represent his Cubist phase, featuring fragmented objects like fruits, bottles, and geometric shapes in vibrant palettes. However, they differ in composition, dimensions, orientation, and auction contexts. The Christie's piece is an upcoming sale with a high estimate, while the Sotheby's work was sold during the 2020 pandemic-era market.
Style & Description
Christie's example : Cubist still life with abstracted forms. Features bold contrasts of color and shape, typical of Léger's pre-war experiments.
Sotheby's example : Cubist still life depicting fragmented everyday objects in vivid colors and mechanical abstraction. Represents Léger's interest in modern life and form contrasts, with an upright composition.
Auction Context
Christie's example : Part of the 20th Century Evening Sale in New York; highlighted as a must-see lot in fall 2025 auctions.
Sotheby's example : Sold in the innovative "Rembrandt to Richter" cross-category evening sale in London during the COVID-19 era, contributing to a total of £150m for the auction.
Detailed Comparison
Asking Grok to compare it with Nature Morte sold for £ 12.2M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 28.
Grok thought :
Overview
Both artworks are by Fernand Léger, a French painter known for his contributions to Cubism and his distinctive style blending mechanical forms, bold colors, and abstract elements. These pieces, both titled variations on "Nature Morte" (still life), date from 1914—a pivotal year in Léger's career when he was exploring contrasts of forms and colors just before World War I. They represent his Cubist phase, featuring fragmented objects like fruits, bottles, and geometric shapes in vibrant palettes. However, they differ in composition, dimensions, orientation, and auction contexts. The Christie's piece is an upcoming sale with a high estimate, while the Sotheby's work was sold during the 2020 pandemic-era market.
Style & Description
Christie's example : Cubist still life with abstracted forms. Features bold contrasts of color and shape, typical of Léger's pre-war experiments.
Sotheby's example : Cubist still life depicting fragmented everyday objects in vivid colors and mechanical abstraction. Represents Léger's interest in modern life and form contrasts, with an upright composition.
Auction Context
Christie's example : Part of the 20th Century Evening Sale in New York; highlighted as a must-see lot in fall 2025 auctions.
Sotheby's example : Sold in the innovative "Rembrandt to Richter" cross-category evening sale in London during the COVID-19 era, contributing to a total of £150m for the auction.
Detailed Comparison
- Artistic Similarities: Both works exemplify Léger's 1914 Cubist style, often called "Contrasts of Forms," where he deconstructed still life motifs into cylindrical, geometric shapes with primary colors and black outlines. They capture the energy of modernity, influenced by Futurism and his Paris milieu. As still lifes, they likely include similar elements like vessels, fruits, or abstract foliage, rendered in a machine-age aesthetic.
- Market and Value Insights: The Sotheby's sale occurred amid 2020's uncertainties, yet it fetched a price within estimate, indicating robust interest in Léger's early works. The Christie's estimate is higher in USD terms (factoring inflation and market growth), potentially reflecting post-pandemic art market recovery and rarity. If the Christie's piece sells near its high estimate, it could outperform the 2020 result on an annualized basis, as suggested by some analyses. Both pieces underscore Léger's auction appeal, with his 1910s Cubist works often commanding eight-figure sums.
1918 Les Cylindres Colorés
2014 SOLD for £ 12 M by Christie's
Léger's development of pure painting is decisive but soon interrupted by the stupid war that annihilates Apollinaire. He now becomes an original image maker of modern life.
He was a sapper and stretcher wearer during the war and was gassed and wounded. Healed from a tuberculosis, he restarts his career in late 1917 while avoiding the theme of the horrors of war.
These three years spent with working-class men laid the foundations for his later political commitment and incited him to renounce to a hermetic full abstraction that could indeed not be appreciated by his comrades from the trenches. Also the effort to reach his own target for perfection was indeed too exhausting.
The great theme of modern civilization is mechanical. The Futurists are interested in its application to speed. Léger is inspired by the assembly and even the machining of its components : cylinders, wheels, discs, gears.
In December 1917 while being cared in a hospital, he took the cylinders as a basic element in a seminal Partie de cartes which is one of his many tributes to Cézanne. He uses this new grammar of the cylinder to oscillate between Cubism and abstraction. Tubular limbs echo the form of the war gun of their daily life, so assimilating man and machine.
On February 4, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 12M from a lower estimate of £ 5M Les cylindres colorés, oil on canvas 54 x 50 cm painted in 1918, lot 5. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
Viewed from afar, the work could display an engine and gears. However its elements are pointing in all directions without visible support and a closer inspection will consider this composition as completely abstract. Another novelty, shared with Mondrian, is the use of pure colors.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
He was a sapper and stretcher wearer during the war and was gassed and wounded. Healed from a tuberculosis, he restarts his career in late 1917 while avoiding the theme of the horrors of war.
These three years spent with working-class men laid the foundations for his later political commitment and incited him to renounce to a hermetic full abstraction that could indeed not be appreciated by his comrades from the trenches. Also the effort to reach his own target for perfection was indeed too exhausting.
The great theme of modern civilization is mechanical. The Futurists are interested in its application to speed. Léger is inspired by the assembly and even the machining of its components : cylinders, wheels, discs, gears.
In December 1917 while being cared in a hospital, he took the cylinders as a basic element in a seminal Partie de cartes which is one of his many tributes to Cézanne. He uses this new grammar of the cylinder to oscillate between Cubism and abstraction. Tubular limbs echo the form of the war gun of their daily life, so assimilating man and machine.
On February 4, 2014, Christie's sold for £ 12M from a lower estimate of £ 5M Les cylindres colorés, oil on canvas 54 x 50 cm painted in 1918, lot 5. Please watch the video prepared by Christie's.
Viewed from afar, the work could display an engine and gears. However its elements are pointing in all directions without visible support and a closer inspection will consider this composition as completely abstract. Another novelty, shared with Mondrian, is the use of pure colors.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2014 X post previews the Christie's London auction of Fernand Léger's 1918 oil painting "Les cylindres colorés," a post-WWI work blending mechanical cylinders and vibrant colors that marked Léger's pivot to tubular abstraction after frontline service.
- The 21¼ x 19¾-inch canvas, estimated at £5-7 million, sold for £12.1 million on February 4, 2014, surpassing expectations and reflecting strong demand for Léger's early modernist innovations amid a record-breaking Impressionist/Modern sale totaling £113.9 million.
- Sourced from the Louis Carré collection with provenance back to 1938, the painting's inclusion in Léger's catalogue raisonné highlights its rarity, connecting wartime human-machine themes to broader Cubist legacies in collections like the Kröller-Müller Museum.
1918 Le Moteur
2001 SOLD for $ 16.7M by Christie's
After the war the avant-garde artists feel a need for a new age. Back to Paris in 1918, Fernand Léger restarts in pure colors his avant-garde creativity. Cubism begins to become out of fashion due to the difficulty of interpretation of its images by the public. He had observed the mechanized warfare while serving as a sapper and stretcher bearer in the trenches.
He stated having discovered the reality of the objects therein. A full abstraction does not match his artistic conception any more. His mechanical period is a response still imbued with cubism to the craze of the Futurists for the machines as the symbol of modern life. The machine age had begun as a reaction to the destructions of war.
Léger views the poetry of the machine and never tries co copy it. His figures are fragmented still in a Cubist style but in flat pure colors. He desires to extract from it a beauty like a landscape painter would do. The new style is only coming from the imagination of the artist.
An oil on canvas 40 x 33 cm dated May 1918 is titled Le Moteur 1er état (first state) by a war discharged Léger then convalescing from tuberculosis. It was sold for £ 5.2M by Christie's on February 2, 2016, lot 9. Painted in the same month, Les Hélices is another example of Léger's new machine aesthetics.
Le Moteur, oil on canvas 137 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is another disintegrated arrangement of the mechanical colored forms. It was sold for $ 16.7M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on November 6, 2001, lot 9 in the sale of the Gaffé collection. This finished version resolutely gets away from the contemporary post-Cubist neo-Classicism of Picasso.
He stated having discovered the reality of the objects therein. A full abstraction does not match his artistic conception any more. His mechanical period is a response still imbued with cubism to the craze of the Futurists for the machines as the symbol of modern life. The machine age had begun as a reaction to the destructions of war.
Léger views the poetry of the machine and never tries co copy it. His figures are fragmented still in a Cubist style but in flat pure colors. He desires to extract from it a beauty like a landscape painter would do. The new style is only coming from the imagination of the artist.
An oil on canvas 40 x 33 cm dated May 1918 is titled Le Moteur 1er état (first state) by a war discharged Léger then convalescing from tuberculosis. It was sold for £ 5.2M by Christie's on February 2, 2016, lot 9. Painted in the same month, Les Hélices is another example of Léger's new machine aesthetics.
Le Moteur, oil on canvas 137 x 118 cm painted in 1918, is another disintegrated arrangement of the mechanical colored forms. It was sold for $ 16.7M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Christie's on November 6, 2001, lot 9 in the sale of the Gaffé collection. This finished version resolutely gets away from the contemporary post-Cubist neo-Classicism of Picasso.
1918 Les Acrobates
2022 SOLD for $ 14M by Christie's
Peace brings a frenzy of the pleasure of life, symbolized by the circus. The cities recover their bright colors, now forwarded by the enormous letters of advertisements on the buildings.
The human form returns into the art of Fernand Léger. His world is now flat : the juxtaposition of mingled figurative forms creates the emotion.
Les Acrobates is painted in 1918 in Léger's mechanical style of the period. It features two circus performers, one of them perched on the shoulders of the other. Head and limbs are represented by geometrical flattened shapes like the gears, wheels and belts of an engine. The mingling of both characters provides a pre-eminence to the colors over the arrangement. The composition is bolder than a Degas as the group is trimmed over and under.
This oil on canvas 90 x 58 cm, also titled Les Deux Acrobates, was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M on November 6, 2002, lot 41 and for $ 14M on May 12, 2022, lot 36C.
The human form returns into the art of Fernand Léger. His world is now flat : the juxtaposition of mingled figurative forms creates the emotion.
Les Acrobates is painted in 1918 in Léger's mechanical style of the period. It features two circus performers, one of them perched on the shoulders of the other. Head and limbs are represented by geometrical flattened shapes like the gears, wheels and belts of an engine. The mingling of both characters provides a pre-eminence to the colors over the arrangement. The composition is bolder than a Degas as the group is trimmed over and under.
This oil on canvas 90 x 58 cm, also titled Les Deux Acrobates, was sold by Christie's for $ 5.5M on November 6, 2002, lot 41 and for $ 14M on May 12, 2022, lot 36C.
1921 Le Grand Déjeuner by LEGER
Intro
After the war Fernand Léger restarts his avant-garde creativity. Cubism begins to become out of fashion due to the difficulty of interpretation of its images by the public. His mechanistic phase had been a response still imbued with cubism to the craze of the Futurists for the machines.
The human figure returns into his art. His world is now flat : the juxtaposition of mingled figurative forms creates the emotion.
In 1920 a series of eight paintings on the theme of the woman seated at the toilette table and looking at herself in the mirror starts that anti-Cubist period of the former Cubist pioneer. The first five are titled Femme au miroir. The next two are Les Femmes à la toilette, and the last is a singular Femme à la toilette. The forms made of pictorial elements without femininity are so re-positioned and mingled that counting the characters becomes ineffective. Les Femmes à la toilette 2ème état, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm, was sold for $ 10.1M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 37.
The Purisme developed in 1918 by Ozenfant and Jeanneret also known as Le Corbusier is a similar rejection of the Cubism.
The human figure returns into his art. His world is now flat : the juxtaposition of mingled figurative forms creates the emotion.
In 1920 a series of eight paintings on the theme of the woman seated at the toilette table and looking at herself in the mirror starts that anti-Cubist period of the former Cubist pioneer. The first five are titled Femme au miroir. The next two are Les Femmes à la toilette, and the last is a singular Femme à la toilette. The forms made of pictorial elements without femininity are so re-positioned and mingled that counting the characters becomes ineffective. Les Femmes à la toilette 2ème état, oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm, was sold for $ 10.1M by Christie's on May 6, 2008, lot 37.
The Purisme developed in 1918 by Ozenfant and Jeanneret also known as Le Corbusier is a similar rejection of the Cubism.
1
La Tasse de Thé
2009 SOLD for € 11.5M by Christie's
From 1920 Léger prepares a painting that would have to be monumental on the intimate theme of the breakfast of three naked women. The line will have to be new, color will come next. A 73 x 92 cm oil on canvas painted in grisaille in 1920-1921 was sold for $ 4.8M by Christie's on November 1, 2005, lot 36. The artist also carries out studies of the individual characters.
Painted in 1921, la Tasse de thé (cup of tea), also designated by the artist as the Cup of chocolate, offers a striking contrast between the naked woman, whose flesh is pale, and surrounding objects in bright colors. This fat woman has not been chosen for any aesthetic feature : simply, she is the modern woman as conceived by the artist.
The final 92 x 65 cm version of the Tasse de Thé sub-theme was sold for € 11.5M by Christie's on February 23, 2009, lot 38 in the sale of the Saint-Laurent - Bergé collection. It is referred by the artist as the final version.
A smaller oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm of La Tasse de Thé is certainly a draft version. It was sold for $ 8.1M by Christie's onNovember 3, 2010.
Painted in 1921, la Tasse de thé (cup of tea), also designated by the artist as the Cup of chocolate, offers a striking contrast between the naked woman, whose flesh is pale, and surrounding objects in bright colors. This fat woman has not been chosen for any aesthetic feature : simply, she is the modern woman as conceived by the artist.
The final 92 x 65 cm version of the Tasse de Thé sub-theme was sold for € 11.5M by Christie's on February 23, 2009, lot 38 in the sale of the Saint-Laurent - Bergé collection. It is referred by the artist as the final version.
A smaller oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm of La Tasse de Thé is certainly a draft version. It was sold for $ 8.1M by Christie's onNovember 3, 2010.
2
Le Grand Déjeuner
2018 SOLD for $ 19.4M by Christie's
Everything is ready now for a full version with the three women. Titled Le Grand Déjeuner, an ultimate preparatory oil on canvas painted in bright colors in 1921 in format 65 x 92 cm was sold for $ 19.4M by Christie's on May 15, 2018, lot 11 A.
On the simple theme of the idle or quiet life of the new women, Léger has modified all iconographic conventions, in search of a balance between bright colors and forms stylized in thick lines. The anonymity of the figures reduces the narration, the intimate emotion is prevailing.
The woman on the right side has the same attitude as the character of la Tasse de thé.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 16, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Fernand Léger’s ‘Le grand déjeuner’ auctioned for $19,437,500! https://bit.ly/2IHekMo
On the simple theme of the idle or quiet life of the new women, Léger has modified all iconographic conventions, in search of a balance between bright colors and forms stylized in thick lines. The anonymity of the figures reduces the narration, the intimate emotion is prevailing.
The woman on the right side has the same attitude as the character of la Tasse de thé.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 16, 2018
#AuctionUpdate Fernand Léger’s ‘Le grand déjeuner’ auctioned for $19,437,500! https://bit.ly/2IHekMo
- Christie's post from May 2018 announces the $19.4 million sale of Fernand Léger's 1921 oil painting "Le grand déjeuner," a cubist composition featuring three stylized female nudes, a table with breakfast items, and a dog, blending classical forms with mechanical abstraction.
- Created as one of four related works during Léger's post-WWI "call to order" phase, it exemplifies his pursuit of "organized intensity" through contrasting colors, geometries, and volumes, influenced by Cézanne, Picasso, and urban modernity.
- Provenance traces from early Paris galleries like Léonce Rosenberg's to U.S. private collections; the sale price fell within its $15-25 million estimate, underscoring enduring market value for Léger's figurative innovations amid 2018's Impressionist auction totals exceeding $300 million.
3
masterpiece
1922 Le Grand Déjeuner, final version
MoMA
The final version completed in 1922 measures 184 x 252 cm.
1922
Le Corsage Rouge
2015 SOLD for $ 17M by Christie's
In parallel with the lengthy preparation of Le Grand Déjeuner, Léger extensively used his new style of flat figures kept in poor reading by the lack of perspective, in pure colors in an indoor surrounding.
La Jeune Fille au Bouquet, oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm painted in 1921, features a hybrid woman whose head and neck are replaced by mechanical elements in the previous style of the artist. It was sold for $ 3.7M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2025, lot 6.
Le Corsage Rouge, painted in 1922, is a group. The sofa is occupied by a clothed seated woman partly hiding a reclining nude woman. Both look straight as if in conversation with the artist.
This oil on canvas 60 x 92 cm was sold for $ 17M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 14, 2015, lot 9C.
Also painted in the same style in 1922, Les Trois Personnes devant le jardin adds as background a countryside viewed through a row a windows in the wall. Two adults and a child are positioned in the doorway and look forward. Their gender is ambiguous, possibly a mere classical family. A few artifacts are drawn in the flattened area between the porch and the windows. The normal space relationship is cancelled throughout as for a swan's song of Cubism.
This oil on canvas 64 x 92 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9M on November 8, 2006, lot 44, and will be sold by the same auction house on May 12, 2025, lot 19A.
La Jeune Fille au Bouquet, oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm painted in 1921, features a hybrid woman whose head and neck are replaced by mechanical elements in the previous style of the artist. It was sold for $ 3.7M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2025, lot 6.
Le Corsage Rouge, painted in 1922, is a group. The sofa is occupied by a clothed seated woman partly hiding a reclining nude woman. Both look straight as if in conversation with the artist.
This oil on canvas 60 x 92 cm was sold for $ 17M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 14, 2015, lot 9C.
Also painted in the same style in 1922, Les Trois Personnes devant le jardin adds as background a countryside viewed through a row a windows in the wall. Two adults and a child are positioned in the doorway and look forward. Their gender is ambiguous, possibly a mere classical family. A few artifacts are drawn in the flattened area between the porch and the windows. The normal space relationship is cancelled throughout as for a swan's song of Cubism.
This oil on canvas 64 x 92 cm was sold by Christie's for $ 9M on November 8, 2006, lot 44, and will be sold by the same auction house on May 12, 2025, lot 19A.
