Fernand LÉGER (after) - Gouaches, watercolors & drawings, Lithograph 1979

Fernand Léger : (1881-1955) is a french painter, and also a creator of tapestries and stained-glass windows cartons, decorator, ceramist, sculptor, draughtsman, and illustrator. He was one of the firsts to exhibit publicly cubist-orientated works, even if his style was sometimes qualified "tubist". Starting 1903, Léger is already sharing a studio with the painter André Mare. After failing at the Beaux-Arts, he trained in several academies. The famous Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler became his art dealer. In 1907 he was struck by the Cézanne retropspective, which strongly orientated his painting. The same year, he discovered Picasso's and Braque's cubism. Starting 1908 he was working along with Modigliaeni, Laurens, and Alexander Archipenko, and became friends with Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, and echoed with the painter Robert Delaunay. In 1909 he painted "La Couseuse", which opened his cubist period. With "Nu dans la forêt" (1909-1910), Léger proposed a personal cubism. In certain respects, this work is an anticiption of the italian futurism. If he is sharing the cubist attention to create a non figurative realism, he distinguishes himself from the Montmartrois by imposing visual cubism, and not an intellectual one. In 1924, with the help of Dudley Murphy, he shot the film "Ballet mécanique". The same year, he got closer to the purists and took part in the revue "L'esprit Nouveau". According to Vauxcelles, he practiced« tubism ». The interest he has in the dynamism « reflection of the modern world », drove him to keep away from intimistic and traditional themes depicted by Braque or Picasso, so as to paint contemporary subjects. Fernand Léger joined the communist party in 1945, and remained a member until the end of his life. In Biot (Alpes-Maritimes), the Musée national Fernand Léger, built by his wife, Nadia Léger, and Georges Bauquier, is dedicated to him, and showw the biggest collection of his works.

Evreux Museum (France)
Beyeler Foundation (Switzerland)
Walker Art Center (The USA)
Grenoble Museum (France)
Das Museum Folkwang (Germany)
Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland)
Fernand Léger National Museum (France)
The Bridgestone Museum of art Ishibashi Foundation (Japan)
Museo Tamayo (Mexico)
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (The USA)
Columbus museum of art (The USA)
Belvedere Museum (Austria)
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal)
Cantini Museum (France)
Museum of Fine Arts of Nantes (France)
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Germany)
Museum Abteiberg (Germany)
The José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo Collection (Portugal)
The Menil Collection (The USA)
The Thyssen Bornemisza Collection (Spain)
Langen Foundation (Germany)
RISD (Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art) (The USA)
Kröller-Müller Museum (Netherlands)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (The USA)
Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland)
Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation (France)
Queensland art Gallery (Australia)
LAM (Lille Métropole Modern Art Museum) (France)
Granet Museum (France)
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (The USA)
Arkansas Arts Center (The USA)
Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma (Finland)
Gothenburg Art Museum (Sweden)
The Cleveland Museum of Art (The USA)
Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection (Germany)
The Indianapolis Museum of Art (The USA)
Museum Ludwig (Köln) (Germany)
Carnegie Museum of art (The USA)
Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris (France)
The Nahmad Collection (Monaco)
Städelmuseum (Germany)
National Gallery of Art, Washington (USA)
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Israel)
Fuji Art Museum (Japan)
National Galleries of Scotland (United Kingdom)
Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (France)
Statens Museum for Kunst (Denmark)
Bernard Magrez Cultural Institute (France)
Center Pompidou - National Museum of Modern Art (France)
MIT List Visual arts Center (The USA)
ACAPA (Angoulême Art Library) (France)
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (MNCARS) (Spain)
Horsens Kunstmuseum (Denmark)
Boca Raton Museum of art (The USA)
Matisse Museum in Cateau-Cambrésis (France)
CIAC International Center for Contemporary Art at Château de Carros (France)
Israel Museum (Israel)
MNBA - Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Argentina (Argentina)
Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje (FYROM)
Henie Onstad Museum (Norway)
Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (France)
Albertina (Austria)
Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Italy)
Sprengel Museum (Germany)
Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (The USA)
Honolulu Museum (The USA)
Gateway Foundation (The USA)
Merkel collection & foundation (Germany)
National Center for Visual Arts (France)
Werner and Gabrielle Merzbacher collection (Switzerland)
Sara Hildén Art Museum (Finland)
National Museum of Western Art & Matsukata Collection (Japan)
Collection Pilar Citoler (Spain)
National Museum of Visual Arts (Uruguay)
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (Germany)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York (The USA)
Portland Museum of Art (The USA)
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College (The USA)
Malraux Museum (France)
Tate Collection (United Kingdom)
Collezione Barilla (Italy)
The Zimmerli Art Museum (The USA)
Sammlung HypoVereinsBank (Germany)
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Germany)
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (The USA)
Des Moines Art Center (The USA)
The Hakone Open-Air Museum (Japan)
Es Baluard Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palma (Spain)
Coninx Museum (Switzerland)
Nasher Museum of art at Duke university (The USA)
The Fralin | UVa Art Museum - University of Virginia (The USA)
The International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza (Italy)
Utah Museum of Fine Art (The USA)
Memorial Art Gallery Rochester (The USA)
The Modern Museum in Sweden - Moderna Museet (Sweden)
Kunstmuseum Winterthur (Switzerland)
National Gallery of Australia (NGA) (Australia)
Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (Canada)
Ohara Museum of Art (Japan)
Heckscher Museum of Art (The USA)
Auckland Art Gallery (Australia)
Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (México)
Belfort Museum of Modern Art (France)
Die Hermann und Margrit Rupf-Stiftung (Switzerland)
Hamburger Kunsthalle (Germany)
Madonna art collection
Art library, Besançon (France)
Museo Botero (Colombia)
The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille (France)
The Kreeger Museum (The USA)
Christian and Yvonne Zervos Foundation (France)
Pully Museum (Switzerland)
Gelonch Viladegut Collection
Center for engraving and printed images (Belgium)