Leger, Fernand (1881-1955) - 1918 The Bargeman (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)
Oil on canvas; 48.6 x 54.3 cm.
Fernand Léger was born at Argentan, France. He began his career as a an artist by serving an apprenticeship in architecture in Caen. In 1900 Léger went to Paris and was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs in 1903 and also attended the Académie Julian. The first profound influence on Léger's work came from Cézanne.
Léger became friends with Delaunay and maintained ties with great artists, including Matisse, Rousseau, Apollinaire and leading exponents of Cubism. From 1909 Léger himself developed a quirky Cubist style, distinguished by reduction to the simplest basic forms and formal austerity linked with a pure, sharply contrasting palette by 1913-14. Surrealismus also left its mark on Fernand Léger in the 1930s, loosening up his style and making it more curvilinear.
Along with Picasso, Braque, and Gris, Fernand Léger ranks among the foremost Cubist painters. By 1912, he had developed his own adaptation of Cubism. Utilizing pure color, he simplified the forms in his pictures into geometric components of the cone, cube, and sphere, leaving their contours unbroken.
Leger, Fernand (1881-1955) - 1918 The Bargeman (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)
Oil on canvas; 48.6 x 54.3 cm.
Fernand Léger was born at Argentan, France. He began his career as a an artist by serving an apprenticeship in architecture in Caen. In 1900 Léger went to Paris and was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs in 1903 and also attended the Académie Julian. The first profound influence on Léger's work came from Cézanne.
Léger became friends with Delaunay and maintained ties with great artists, including Matisse, Rousseau, Apollinaire and leading exponents of Cubism. From 1909 Léger himself developed a quirky Cubist style, distinguished by reduction to the simplest basic forms and formal austerity linked with a pure, sharply contrasting palette by 1913-14. Surrealismus also left its mark on Fernand Léger in the 1930s, loosening up his style and making it more curvilinear.
Along with Picasso, Braque, and Gris, Fernand Léger ranks among the foremost Cubist painters. By 1912, he had developed his own adaptation of Cubism. Utilizing pure color, he simplified the forms in his pictures into geometric components of the cone, cube, and sphere, leaving their contours unbroken.