Esquisse pour "La Ville" (Sketch for "The City")

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Esquisse pour "La Ville" (Sketch for "The City")

Artist Fernand Léger (French, 1881-1955)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1919

DimensionsPainting: 25 5/8 x 21 1/4 in. (65.1 x 54 cm)
Frame: 33 1/2 x 29 x 2 in. (85.1 x 73.7 x 5.1 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2000.9

Not on View

Label TextBefore producing his large version of The City (La ville), now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fernand Léger worked out his composition with multiple smaller canvases. His related works in the series, each named a “study” or “fragment,” focused on different areas of the final composition. In this sketch, however, Léger fully realizes his composition, and the work reads as complete rather than preliminary. Depictions of Paris became a primary subject for Léger when he returned to the city after serving in the French army during World War I (1914–18). This image, with its Cubist fragmentation and glimpses of scaffolding, smoke stacks, and billboards, captures the height of the industrial age and Paris’s vibrant post-war development. Léger described the accomplishments of The City, saying, “I composed a picture exclusively with pure, flat colors. Technically, that picture was a plastic* (*sculptural) revolution. One could achieve depth and dynamism without modeling or chiaroscuro* (*light and shadow). The pure tones of the blues, reds, and yellows break away [from the subject] and the color had become free. It was a reality in its own right.”Published References"Collection Andre Lefevre", Tableaux Modernes, Palais Galliera, Paris, November 25, 1965, repr. (col.) no. 54.

Bauquier, George, Fernand Léger, catalogue raisonné de l'ouevre peint 1903-1919, vol. I, Paris, 1990, pp. 284-285, no. 160, repr. (col.) p. 235.

Lemaire, Gerard-Georges, "Le Mur l'architecte le peintre," Museart-Musexpo, 1997, p. 33, no. 9.

"A Selection of 2000 Museum Acquisitions," Apollo, vol. 152, no. 466, Dec. 2000, repr. p. 49 (col.).

Berkowitz, Roger M., "Selected Acquisitions Made by the Toledo Museum of Art, 1990-2001," Burlington, vol. 143, no. 1177, April, 2001, p. 262, fig. XVI (col.) and cover (col.).

"La Chronique des arts," Gazette Des Beaux-Arts, vol. 137, no. 1586, Mar. 2001, repr. p. 61.

Vallye, Anna, Léger: La visione della città contemporanea, 1910-1930, Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, 2014, p. 137, repr. (col.) p. 76. Vallye, Anna, Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2013, pl. 36 (col.) p. 93.

Exhibition History

Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, Collection Andre Lefevre, 1965, no. 54.

New York, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., Fernand Léger, 1987, no. 18, repr. p. 43.

Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Fernand Léger, 1997, repr. p. 76.

Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de ArteReina Sofia, Fernand Léger, 1997-1998, repr. p. 88.

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Venice, Museo Correr, Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis, Oct. 14, 2013-Jun. 2, 2014, no. 15, repr. (col.), p. 76 (also in Italian version of catalog: cat. no. 15).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Great War: Art on the Frontline, Jul. 25-Oct. 19, 2014.