Fernand Léger b.Argentan 1881-1955 Gif-sur-Yvette
Apprenticed to an architect in Caen in 1897, at the age of nineteen he moved to Paris supporting himself first as a draughtsman in an architects office and then as a retoucher in a photographic studio.
He studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and the Académie Julian. From 1909 he became associated with the Cubists, signing a contract with Daniel-H. Kahnweiler, the dealer of Picasso and Braque. During his Cubist period he became the first to experiment with purely abstract forms.
Invalided out of the French army in 1917, he became a close friend of Le Corbusier who himself was not only a major influence in architecture and design but also a force in twentieth century art.
Léger’s art is monumental in style with flat, pure areas of colour and heavy black contours. It has a precise and polished appearance.
During the late 1920’s and 1930’s he painted single objects isolated in space and sometimes amplified to a gigantic size. He also designed for the theatre, especially for the Swedish Ballet. In 1924 he directed ‘Ballet Mécanique’, the first film without a script.
Throughout the Second World War, Léger lived in the United States and taught at Yale University. His painting at this time mainly consisted of compositions featuring acrobats and cyclists. After his return to France in 1945 his work reflected his political interest in the proletariat but its style remained the same.