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Fernand Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker who developed a personal form of cubism and modernism. Learn about his life, works, influences, and legacy in this comprehensive article.
Aug 13, 2024 · Learn about Fernand Léger, a French painter who was influenced by modern industrial technology and Cubism. Explore his style, works, and legacy in this comprehensive article from Britannica.
Learn about the life and career of Fernand Léger, a French painter and sculptor who captured the dynamism of modern life in his Cubist and mechanical style. Explore his works on paper, murals, films, and more at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Summary of Fernand Léger
- Accomplishments
- Biography of Fernand Léger
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Though Fernand Léger built his reputation as a Cubist, his style varied considerably from decade to decade, fluctuating between figuration and abstraction and showing influence from a wide range of sources. Léger worked in a variety of media including paint, ceramic, film, theater and dance sets, glass, print, and book arts. While his style varied,...
Léger embraced the Cubist notion of fracturing objects into geometric shapes, but retained an interest in depicting the illusion of three-dimensionality. Léger's unique brand of Cubism was also dis...Influenced by the chaos of urban spaces and his interest in brilliant, primary color, Léger sought to express the noise, dynamism, and speed of new technology and machinery often creating a sense o...In its embrace of recognizable subject matter and the illusion of three dimensionality interspersed with or often simultaneous with experiments in abstraction and non-representation, Léger's work s...Childhood
Fernand Léger was born in rural Normandy on February 4, 1881 and raised by his family to take up a valuable trade, like his father who was a cattle dealer. While Léger was not encouraged to become an artist, when he showed talent for drawing, he was sent to apprentice with an architect in Caen. After finishing his military training in 1903, he studied in Paris at the École des Arts Décoratifs and Académie Julian. During his studies, he made a living doing architectural drawings and retouching...
Early Training
In 1909, Léger moved to Montparnasse and painted early Cubist works such as Le Compotier sur la Table (1909). Though he had met Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Rousseau, his closest friends were the writers Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars. At the 1911 Salon des Indépendants, Léger exhibited paintings that led to his recognition as a major Cubist artist, particularly Nudes in the Forest(1909-1910). He continued to exhibit at the Indépendants and at the Salon d'Automne until...
Mature Period
In 1920, Léger married Jeanne-Augustine Lohy and also met Le Corbusier with whom he would remain close friends. He aligned himself closely with the circle around Le Corbusier who were interested in machinery and depicting speed and motion. His clean, figurative style and retreat from abstraction in this period are evident in Three Women (Le Grand Déjeuner)of 1921. There are also obvious nods to Futurism in some of his works from this period. During the 1920s he branched out into other methods...
Learn about Fernand Léger, a French painter who pioneered a distinctive form of Cubism that combined figuration and abstraction, primary colors and geometric shapes. Explore his life, achievements, and influential artworks that reflect the modernity and dynamism of his time.
- French
- February 4, 1881
- Argentan, France
- August 17, 1955
Learn about Fernand Léger, a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker who created a personal form of cubism and influenced pop art. Explore his 216 works online, 503 exhibitions, and publications at MoMA.
Learn about Fernand Léger, a French painter who developed a distinctive style of Cubism with tubular forms and mechanical imagery. Explore his artworks, exhibitions, and auction prices on Artnet, a leading platform for buying and selling art.
Learn about Léger's life and works, from his cubist "tubism" to his pop art-influenced style. See his artworks on display at Tate Modern and Tate Britain, and explore related themes and movements.
