Fernand Léger, La Partie de campagne

Painted in 1952-53 .signed F. LÉGER and dated 52-53 (lower right); signed F. LÉGER, titled La partie de campagne (fragment) and dated 52/53 on the reverse. oil on canvas. 162 by 114cm. Estimate ,000,000—6,000,000 GBP

This work will be included in the forthcoming Volume IX of the Fernand Léger Catalogue raisonné: 1952-1955 being published by Adrien Maeght Editeur with the collaboration of Irus Hansma, Claude Lefebvre du Prey and Nelly Maillard.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (acquired from the artist and until at least 1962)
Perls Galleries, New York (acquired by 1968 and until at least 1988)
Private Collection (acquired from the above)
Acquired from the above by the previous owner in 1990

EXHIBITED: Paris, Maison de la Pensée Française, Fernand Léger, oeuvres récentes, 1953-1954, 1954, no. 40
Leverkusen, Städtisches Museum, Fernand Léger, 1955, no. 16
(probably) Paris, Salon de Mai, Hommage à Léger, 1956, no. 104
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Fernand Léger, 1956, no. 145, illustrated in the catalogue
Basel, Kunsthalle, Fernand Léger, 1957, no. 98, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst & Zurich, Kunsthaus, Fernand Léger, 1957, no. 129, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Fernand Léger: Five Themes and Variations, 1962, no. 66, illustrated in the catalogue
Strasbourg, Château des Rohan, La Grande aventure de l'art du XXe siècle, 1963
New York, Perls Galleries, Fernand Léger: Oil Paintings, 1968, no. 31, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery & Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Fernand Léger: The Late Years, 1987-88, no. 48, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne; Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia & New York, Museum of Modern Art, Fernand Léger, 1997-98, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
New York, Helly Nahmad Gallery, Fernand Léger, 2005, no. 29, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Fernand Léger, Paris - New York, 2008, no. 102, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

NOTE: Léger's La Partie de campagne is one of a series of monumental oils completed between 1952 and 1954, devoted to the subject of a country outing. At over one-and-a-half meters high, this work is related to an even larger version now in the collection of the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (fig. 3). Unlike that larger picture from 1954, which provides a more expansive view of the landscape, the present work from 1952-53 focuses solely on the central characters. These transparent figures, rendered in heavy black outline, are given their colour by independent and broad bands of red, blue, green and yellow that sweep across the canvas. Léger once explained this liberal approach to colour as it applies to this series: 'You are talking to someone and all of a sudden he becomes blue,' he said. 'As soon as that colour fades another comes and he turns red or yellow. That kind of colour, projected colour, is free; it exists in space. I wanted to have the same thing in my canvases' (quoted in Simon Willmoth, 'Léger in America', in Fernand Léger: The Late Years (exhibition catalogue), Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1987-88, p. 51).

Léger's modeling of the figures themselves, including the reclining woman and the suited bourgeois gentleman, is an obvious quotation of Manet's 1863 masterwork, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (fig. 1). But it is with considerable creative license that Léger has reinterpreted the celebrated 19th century picnic scene for his La Partie de campagne series. Léger was a life-long admirer of Manet and considered him the most important innovators in the history of art. Similar to Picasso's focus on the old masters in the 1950s, Léger was mindful of the artists of the past and decided to pay tribute to one of his favourites during these last few years of his life. Both he and Manet shared radical political affiliations, and Léger felt a sense of comradery with the artist. At the time he painted this work, Léger was an active proponent of socialist ideas and a defender of the Communist party. Many of his pictures from this time were allusions to labour rights and other political issues sympathetic to that cause. Along with the series of La Partie de campagne, Léger also completed another series entitled Les Campeurs, which further explores Manet's original theme and broader ideas of contemporary politics.

La Partie de campagne incorporates the solidly linear figures that had populated Léger's best work since the 1920s. Shape and form were primary concerns for the artist, but by the last years of his career he began to incorporate narrative into his highly geometric compositions. In this picture, the juxtaposition of the curvilinear family against the architecturally detailed natural setting reveals the medley of shapes and forms that have become part of the contemporary landscape. Léger was fascinated with social progress, and the campers, construction workers and circus performers that he painted in the 1950s celebrate the activities of modern life.

Concerning the constrasts inherent in these pictures from the 1950s, Léger said, 'If I was able to approach very close to a realistic figuration, it was because the violent contrast between my workmen and the metal geometry in which they are set is at its maximum. Modern sculptures, whether social or other, are valid insofar as this law of contrasts is respected; otherwise one falls back on the classical picture of the Italian Renaissance' (quoted in Werner Schmalenbach, Fernand Léger, New York, 1976, p. 162).

Sotheby's. Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale. London, New Bond Street. 03 Feb 09. www.sothebys.com Photo courtesy Sotheby's