LÉGER (Fernand). - Lot 176

LÉGER (Fernand). Born in Argentan. 1881–1955. French painter, ceramicist, sculptor, and illustrator. Member of the Puteaux Group. Together with Ozenfant, he founded the Académie Moderne. Autograph letter signed “F. Léger” to “Dear Henri” [the art dealer Henri Kahnweiler?]. [Paris], 86 rue Notre-Dame des Champs, undated, Saturday. 1 page, in-8 format, on slate-colored paper (double sheet—pinholes). The painter informs his correspondent that he intends to stay …in Normandy until Wednesday. If a decision regarding the large painting is made by then, you should call Lefevre-Foinet (sic, Lefebvre-Foinet) at 19 rue Vavin, ext. 64-34. They have employees who have stretched the canvas onto the frame and who do excellent work; you can entrust them with the task of taking it down and putting it back up… He adds, …The key to the studio is with the concierge. We’ll title the painting “La Parade”—it fits the subject better… The Lefebvre-Foinet family were art supply merchants who ran a shop in the Montparnasse district of Paris. For over a century, many artists walked through their doors, including Picasso, Modigliani, and, later, Mondrian and Soulages. Artists short on cash knew they could trade paintings for art supplies, and it was through this arrangement that the Lefebvre-Foinets built an exceptional collection of works by 20th-century modern painters (see Christie’s Paris auction, 2009). Léger formed a relationship with Henri Kahnweiler in 1913 by signing an exclusivity contract with Picasso’s famous art dealer; at the same time, he moved into a new studio located at !§ Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, in Paris’s 6th arrondissement, a studio he would keep until the end of his life. The circus was one of the painter’s favorite themes. Several of his paintings are devoted in particular to the famous Cirque Médrano, which he frequented with his poet friends—Apollinaire, Cendrars, Max Jacob—as well as the painters Picasso and Rouault. “Go to the circus. Nothing is as round as the circus. It’s a huge bowl in which circular forms unfold. It never stops—it’s all connected. […] Go to the circus. You leave behind your rectangles, your geometric windows, and you enter the land of circles in motion,” declared Fernand Léger in 1950. The painting “La Grande Parade” is housed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; variations can be found at the Fernand Léger National Museum in Biot.