![Fernand Léger, 1954 -by Ida Kar [if not the last, one of the latest portraits of Léger] via NPG](https://www.abrahamlubelski.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tumblr_l7wbzp86yu1qcl8ymo1_400-457x390.jpg)
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was born today on February 4, 1881, in Argentan, Orne, Lower Normandy, where his father raised cattle. Léger initially trained as an architect from 1897 to 1899, before moving in 1900 to Paris, and supported himself as an architectural draftsman. He was rejected at the École des Beaux-Arts, notwithstanding he attended classes there beginning in 1903 as a non-enrolled student and also studied at the Académie Julian.
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. He was known for boldly simplified treatment of modern subject. Léger exhibited in 1911 at the Salon des Indépendants together with the painters identified as ‘Cubists’. Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Le Fauconnier, Delaunay and Léger were responsible for revealing Cubism to the general public for the first time as an organized group.
Fernand Léger, ‘Three Women’, 1921-22. Oil on canvas, 6′ 1/4″ x 8′ 3″ (183.5 x 251.5 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. MoMA
Fernand Leger, ‘The acrobat and his partner’ (L’acrobate et sa partenaire), 1948. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016. Tate
Le compotier (Table and Fruit), 1910–11, oil on canvas, 82.2 x 97.8 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Reproduced in Du “Cubisme”, 1912
Fernand Léger, The City (La ville), 1919, oil on canvas, 231.1 x 298.4 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Fernand Leger with Birtish model Anne Gunning in his Paris studio 1955 © 2007 Mark Shaw.
J. Gora, NY Arts
