#bornonthisday
Happy Birthday to Fernand Léger who were born on this day in 1881!
French artist, Léger (1881 – 1955) spent two years in service for the French Army at the front in Argonne. His experiences in World War I had a significant effect on his work. While serving in the army, he made many sketches of artillery pieces and fellow soldiers while in the trenches. In September 1916, he almost died from a mustard gas attack. Later, he explained the mechanical and robotic figures and machine-like forms in his paintings thusly:
“…I was stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic of light on the white metal. That’s all it took for me to forget the abstract art of 1912–1913. The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perfection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and its application in the midst of the life-and-death drama we were in … made me want to paint in slang with all its color and mobility.” (Summarized from Wikipedia.)
Image description:
1. Black and white photograph of the artist in a trench with a cigarette in his mouth.
2. Painting of an abstract human figure with tuber forms with a pipe in his mouth.
3. Painting of a man with a mustache wearing a black tank top looking side way, his arms almost crossed with his right hand holding a cigarette, painted in simplified forms with bold colors, red, black, and some yellow.
4. Watercolor sketch with loose brush strokes with light colors, some yellow, brown, and olive green with black outlines.
Fernand Léger in the Argonne
Black and white photography
Photographer unidentified
French
1915
HOLLIS number: olvwork731577
Soldier with pipe
Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955, French [artist]
50 x 27"
French
paintings
1916
Repository: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
HOLLIS number: olvwork182037
Mechanic
Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955, French [artist]
45 ½ x 35"
paintings
1920
Repository: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
HOLLIS number: olvwork182067
Trench diggers
Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955, French [artist]
Ink, tempera and/or watercolor and red glaze on paper
31.8 x 26.2 cm.
watercolors (paintings)
1916
Repository: Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, United States
HOLLIS number: 8000981201
