Fernand Léger was born in 1881 in Argentan. His artistic gifts first found a channel for expression through architecture. He studied architecture at the same time as he took classes at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. Living in Montparnasse, he began painting and became friends with Chagall, Soutine and Max Jacob. At the start of his career, he was close to the Impressionists; an exhibition of Cézanne’s work introduced him to Cubism and Abstraction, yet he kept a certain distance with these styles. The result is painting dominated by tubular forms and a very colourful palette.
After World War I, he began painting canvasses inspired by the circus world and machines, returning gradually to representative art. For about ten years, he focussed on depicting objects using points of view borrowed from cinema. He even directed a film, Le Ballet mécanique, in 1924. In 1931, he returned to painting human faces and large-scale canvasses.
During World War II, he found refuge in New York where he painted a series of acrobats and divers, as well as various landscapes. Following Liberation, he returned to France and joined the Communist Party. This political choice profoundly influenced the rest of his work, a large part of which is dedicated to social concerns as, for example, in his series depicting construction workers.
