Fernand Léger Lot n° 42

Fernand Léger Deux cordages sur fond bleu 1938 Oil on paper, mounted on canvas 53,7 x 64,5 cm Framed. Signed and dated in black lower right '38 F.LEGER'. According to Irus Hansma the painting exists in several versions. - The offered copy is identical with the work illustrated in the catalogue raisonné (Bauquier 990). - Professionally cleaned. Bauquier 990 We thank Irus Hansma, Paris, for kind information. Provenance Private collection Southern France; Christie's London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, 27 June 1989, lot 395; Lempertz Cologne, auction 672, 21 November 1991, lot 265; Private collection; Private property France Literature Gilles Néret, Léger, Paris 1990, no. 234, with colour illustration p. 177. "Léger now no longer sees his aim as evoking dynamism. Rather, he is concerned with creating contemplative points of rest in the face of the gruelling hectic pace of modern life [...] Léger is convinced from the outset that art has the task of assisting modern man, who has lost his religious connections, in his search for a 'substitute for the religion that has receded'. It is to bring about a 'cult of the beautiful', which will mean an increase in the quality of life for the working man. [...] The immediate cause for Léger's reconsideration of the function of his art was certainly his political involvement since the early 1930s. Thus, he belonged to both the Association d'Ecrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires, founded in 1932, and the Maison de la Culture (founded in 1934) - both organizations whose aim was above all the transmission of culture to the proletarian worker." (Ina Conzen-Meairs, Revolution and Tradition, in Fernand Léger. Zeichnungen, Bilder, Zyklen 1930-1955, exh. Cat. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart 1988, p. 13). The pictorial elements and the type of composition in "Deux cordages sur fond bleu" are reminiscent of designs for wall paintings that Léger executed in 1935 and 1936. Characteristic of this period are the pictorial elements floating in an indeterminate space, partly abstract, partly oriented towards representational objects. The composition is characterized by a particular clarity; the pictorial rhythm simultaneously moves and orders the figures in space. Colour, form and object merge into the contemplative unity Léger was striving for, which is supposed to help the viewer to a new, unknown view of the real world.