Cirque
Artist: Fernand Léger (French, 1881-1955)
Printer: Mourlot Frères, [Paris]
Author: Fernand Léger (French, 1881-1955)
Date: 1950
Dimensions:
Slipcase: H: 17 7/16 in. (443 mm); W: 13 3/8 in. (340 mm); Depth: 1 7/8 in. (48 mm).
Chemise: H: 17 3/16 in. (435 mm); W: 13 3/8 in. (339 mm); Depth: 1 5/8 in. (41 mm).
Book: H: 16 3/4 in. (425 mm); W: 13 1/8 in. (333 mm); Depth: 1 7/16 in. (37 mm).
Page (untrimmed): H: 16 5/8 in. (423 mm); W: 12 5/8 in. (320 mm).
Medium: Original prints: 83 lithographs, incl. 49 in black and 34 in color (incl. wrappers).
Text: letterpress and lithography in black.
Paper: Arches cream wove paper, watermarked.
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Gift of Molly and Walter Bareiss
Object number: 1984.669
Label Text:Fernand Léger, Cirque (Circus). Text by Fernand Léger (1950)
Cirque was originally conceived as a collaboration between Fernand Léger and the novelist Henry Miller. At a time when the two were interested in working together, the publisher Efstratios Tériade Léger approached Leger to make prints for an artist’s book.
Tériade hoped to publish a series of such books with the circus as the theme. Léger was a circus enthusiast who often used circus images in his paintings. He often went to the Cirque Médrano in Paris and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in New York. He agreed to the project and suggested that Miller write the text.
Miller wrote a tragic tale of a disenchanted clown (published as The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder), which Tériade rejected. He had published two earlier circus-related projects, Rouault’s Divertissement and Matisse’s Jazz. Both artists had written their texts, so he asked Léger to write Cirque.
Léger wrote about life and art framed within the context of the circle, which he saw as symbolic of wholeness, continuity and freedom. To Léger the circus and the circle were inseparable: “What is a circus if not a machine that produces circles? …acrobats, horseback riders, bicycles, clowns, animals—on a perfectly round ring …Go to the circus, quit your rectangles…and you go to the land of circles in action.”
Cirque was originally conceived as a collaboration between Fernand Léger and the novelist Henry Miller. At a time when the two were interested in working together, the publisher Efstratios Tériade Léger approached Leger to make prints for an artist’s book.
Tériade hoped to publish a series of such books with the circus as the theme. Léger was a circus enthusiast who often used circus images in his paintings. He often went to the Cirque Médrano in Paris and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in New York. He agreed to the project and suggested that Miller write the text.
Miller wrote a tragic tale of a disenchanted clown (published as The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder), which Tériade rejected. He had published two earlier circus-related projects, Rouault’s Divertissement and Matisse’s Jazz. Both artists had written their texts, so he asked Léger to write Cirque.
Léger wrote about life and art framed within the context of the circle, which he saw as symbolic of wholeness, continuity and freedom. To Léger the circus and the circle were inseparable: “What is a circus if not a machine that produces circles? …acrobats, horseback riders, bicycles, clowns, animals—on a perfectly round ring …Go to the circus, quit your rectangles…and you go to the land of circles in action.”
Not on view
In Collection(s)