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Lot Essay
In the final decade of his career, following his return to France in 1945 from his wartime exile in New York, "Léger was absorbed in endeavoring to create a language in which a balance could be established between familiar imagery, an architectural function of painting, and themes stressing the permanence of man" (P. de Francia, Fernand Léger, New Haven, 1983, p. 228). Importantly, he brought back from America a renewed interest in the landscape.
Painted in 1953, Paysage fond orange manifests the artist’s late style. It is the culmination of a series of landscapes he worked on that year, each juxtaposing organic and mechanical elements in varying degrees (fig. 1). In Leger’s modern arcadia, idyllic nature is necessarily violated by constructions of the technological age. Here, modeled organic shapes are woven into a framework of distinct vertical and horizontal elements fashioned from pylons and a telegraph mast (a compositional device since at least the 1930s), industrial signs, power lines and abstract motifs. The most novel element in his mature approach, however, is the use of bands and swatches of pure color forms, which may conform to or run independent of contour lines. The straightforward use of blue, white and red--the French tricolor--also points to the allegorical dimension in this canvas, as a paean to his native land, even if the artist would argue that he was simply using objects, "not for its sentimental value," he declared, but solely for its plastic value. Léger wrote:
"The plastic life, the picture, is made up of harmonious relationships among volumes, lines and colors. These are the three forces that must govern works of art. If, in organizing these three essential elements harmoniously, one finds that objects, elements of reality, can enter into the composition, it may be better and may give the work more richness. But they must be subordinated to the three essential elements mentioned above... Sometimes these relationships are merely decorative when they are abstract. But if objects figure in the composition--free objects with a genuine plastic value--pictures result that have as much variety and profundity as any with an imitative subject" (quoted in E.F. Fry, ed., Fernand Léger, Functions of Paintings, New York, 1973, pp. 155, 168 and 169).
Since the 1930s Léger had been striving to create a popular art that would communicate clearly and effectively among large numbers of people he believed would be receptive to art, but had few opportunities to enjoy it. Even if Léger has cast this picture in the modern syntax of his late mural style, Paysage fond orange is a universally communicative and engaging painting. Peter de Francia observed that, "Intensity of reality is achieved by the contrast of prosaic objects with pictorial artifice... Léger's paintings are exorcized of mystery. Formalized elements, used sparingly, invalidate any tendency to interpret figuration in terms of naturalism... Each element is completely predictable and readable" (ibid., p. 228).
Léger had no wish to remind his viewers of Cold War crises and the growing threat of nuclear annihilation. In his art there would not be any suggestion of existentialist angst or a call for deep philosophical reflection on issues of the day. Instead he would provide a simple, soothing balm for the anxious public by placing his art in the wider context of human history, in which humankind seemed blessed with the capacity to endure and carry on, while maintaining fundamental values. Léger trusted to get to his instinct for optimism. To this end he reached back, as many modern artists have done, to the mythic and classical foundations of human culture. Léger declared: "It is the great order of antiquity that I wished to see reappear" (quoted in Y. Brunhammer, Fernand Léger, The Monumental Art, Paris, 2005, p. 147).
(fig. 1) Fernand Leger, Paysage fond orangé, 1er état, 1953. Private collection.
(fig. 2) The artist in Gif-sur-Yvette, 1953.
Painted in 1953, Paysage fond orange manifests the artist’s late style. It is the culmination of a series of landscapes he worked on that year, each juxtaposing organic and mechanical elements in varying degrees (fig. 1). In Leger’s modern arcadia, idyllic nature is necessarily violated by constructions of the technological age. Here, modeled organic shapes are woven into a framework of distinct vertical and horizontal elements fashioned from pylons and a telegraph mast (a compositional device since at least the 1930s), industrial signs, power lines and abstract motifs. The most novel element in his mature approach, however, is the use of bands and swatches of pure color forms, which may conform to or run independent of contour lines. The straightforward use of blue, white and red--the French tricolor--also points to the allegorical dimension in this canvas, as a paean to his native land, even if the artist would argue that he was simply using objects, "not for its sentimental value," he declared, but solely for its plastic value. Léger wrote:
"The plastic life, the picture, is made up of harmonious relationships among volumes, lines and colors. These are the three forces that must govern works of art. If, in organizing these three essential elements harmoniously, one finds that objects, elements of reality, can enter into the composition, it may be better and may give the work more richness. But they must be subordinated to the three essential elements mentioned above... Sometimes these relationships are merely decorative when they are abstract. But if objects figure in the composition--free objects with a genuine plastic value--pictures result that have as much variety and profundity as any with an imitative subject" (quoted in E.F. Fry, ed., Fernand Léger, Functions of Paintings, New York, 1973, pp. 155, 168 and 169).
Since the 1930s Léger had been striving to create a popular art that would communicate clearly and effectively among large numbers of people he believed would be receptive to art, but had few opportunities to enjoy it. Even if Léger has cast this picture in the modern syntax of his late mural style, Paysage fond orange is a universally communicative and engaging painting. Peter de Francia observed that, "Intensity of reality is achieved by the contrast of prosaic objects with pictorial artifice... Léger's paintings are exorcized of mystery. Formalized elements, used sparingly, invalidate any tendency to interpret figuration in terms of naturalism... Each element is completely predictable and readable" (ibid., p. 228).
Léger had no wish to remind his viewers of Cold War crises and the growing threat of nuclear annihilation. In his art there would not be any suggestion of existentialist angst or a call for deep philosophical reflection on issues of the day. Instead he would provide a simple, soothing balm for the anxious public by placing his art in the wider context of human history, in which humankind seemed blessed with the capacity to endure and carry on, while maintaining fundamental values. Léger trusted to get to his instinct for optimism. To this end he reached back, as many modern artists have done, to the mythic and classical foundations of human culture. Léger declared: "It is the great order of antiquity that I wished to see reappear" (quoted in Y. Brunhammer, Fernand Léger, The Monumental Art, Paris, 2005, p. 147).
(fig. 1) Fernand Leger, Paysage fond orangé, 1er état, 1953. Private collection.
(fig. 2) The artist in Gif-sur-Yvette, 1953.