Exhibition texts Fernand Léger and the rooftops of Paris

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FERNAND LÉGER AND THE ROOFTOPS OF PARIS

In the second half of the nineteenth century, we see the emergence of modern Paris, with its wide boulevards, elegant architecture, large department stores and countless restaurants and cafés. The large museums and exhibitions of contemporary art, the Salons, prove highly attractive to artists. For several decades, Paris is the capital of modern art, where many innovations are developed.

Born in Normandy, Fernand Léger settles in Paris as an architectural draftsman in 1900, but decides to become an artist in 1903. In 1908, he makes a radical departure from the colourful impressionistic paintings that he produced previously and seeks possibilities to express his increasing penchant for abstraction and pronounced forms.

In 1911 he moves in to a studio on the top floor of a building on the rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, which overlooks the roofs and smoking chimneys of the Latin Quarter. He uses this view to force a breakthrough in his work. In the series of works created there, entitled Fumées sur les toits ( Smoke over the Rooftops ), Léger proceeds from relatively realistic and monochrome towards increasingly abstract and colourful. The series thus becomes a stepping stone to the cubist work he creates in the period 1911 to 1914.

In 1999, the Triton Collection Foundation acquired Léger’s Bastille Day ( 1912 1913 ). Although a second painting was known to exist on the back, it was thought that this work had been damaged beyond repair. However, recent research and restoration work have revealed a painting from the series Smoke over the Rooftops . That discovery forms the inspiration for this exhibition.

Fernand Léger and the rooftops of Paris is produced in collaboration with the Triton Collection Foundation.

Concurrently with Fernand Léger and the rooftops of Paris , the museum presents Analogous to Léger next to Expo 1, where Jan Robert Leegte (1973 ) and Harm van den Dorpel (1981 ) both respond to the painting Smoke over the Rooftops from the Triton Collection Foundation with a digital artwork.

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EARLY DEVELOPMENT

By 1909, Léger has had enough of his early impressionist and post-impressionist work. He destroys almost all his paintings from the years 1903 1908 and finds a new spiritual mentor in his search for a style of his own: Paul Cézanne. Cézanne achieves fame late in his career, but subsequently inspires a younger generation of artists, including the cubists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who in turn introduce Léger to new artistic possibilities.

Léger lives and works in the Montparnasse district, which attracts many artists at the time. In 1909, he finds a studio in La Ruche, a building that resembles a beehive ( ruche ), where avant-garde artists such as Robert Delaunay, Chaïm Soutine and Alexander Archipenko work. He also befriends painters who, like himself, seek more abstraction and go by the name Salon cubists because they show their works at the Salons, the Paris art exhibitions : Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Henri Le Fauconnier and others.

FUMÉES SUR LES TOITS ( SMOKE OVER THE ROOFTOPS )

In October 1911, Léger moves into a studio on the top floor of 13 rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie. After the steps he took under the influence of Paul Cézanne in particular, there he finds the motif that would mark a turning point in his work: a view of the rooftops in the Latin Quarter, with its many plumes of smoke and with the Nôtre Dame in the distance. This view leads to the series Smoke over the Rooftops , which currently includes ten paintings and several drawings. In these works, Léger experiments with form, line and colour and increasingly seeks abstraction. He would stress the importance of the series throughout his life.

In Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s gallery, which he visits for the first time in 1911, Léger discovers the work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They – and later Juan Gris – become his new sources of inspiration.

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CONTRASTES DE FORMES ( CONTRASTS OF FORMS )

In the years 1911 1912, Léger takes decisive steps towards abstraction and his own, distinctive application of colour and form with his Smoke over the Rooftops . At the same time, he also paints several large abstract canvases, culminating in a series of some fifty paintings and a hundred drawings, which he calls Contrasts of Forms . In these, Léger creates a dynamic interplay of sharply drawn cylinders, spheres, cones and tubular elements in contrasting colours. The series, created from 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, is considered the cubist high point of his oeuvre.

For Kahnweiler, there are only four true cubists : Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger. Léger’s cubist period is, however, short-lived. In 1914, he is conscripted and after the war he develops a new, figurative style with motifs from modern times.

FERNAND LÉGER IN THE KRÖLLERMÜLLER COLLECTION

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On 19 October 1921, Helene Kröller-Müller’s art advisor H.P. Bremmer acquires the first four works by Léger for her collection at the auction house Mak in Amsterdam. The three paintings and one watercolour, including Mechanical Element and The Typographer, are from the collection of Parisian art dealer Léonce Rosenberg. From the First World War onwards, along with Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who lives in exile in Switzerland between 1915 and 1920, Rosenberg is the most important representative of artists such as Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger.

On 9 August 1918, Léger even binds himself exclusively to Rosenberg.

Four months after her first purchase, Helene visits Léger’s studio on rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Montparnasse. His work makes a deep impression on her. She sees similarities with the work of Bart van der Leck, whom she, like Vincent van Gogh, considers a great innovator in painting. She finds Léger even more harmonious because, in her opinion, he manages to express strength, but also finesse, through form and colour.

Despite the previous purchases, Bremmer does not share Helene’s admiration for Léger. She follows her own intuition, however, supplementing her collection with works on paper and the two large, important paintings Nude Figures in a Forest and Soldiers Playing Cards, which she acquires directly from Rosenberg between 1925 and 1928.

‘ Zoo zijn wij o ok bij L éger ge weest, e en va n l e ide nde ku bisten. N iets in Parijs heeft zo o’n in d r uk op mij gemaakt als zijn we rk, o fs ch o o d at m o e t ik ee rlijk b ekennen, ik in de eerste vijf minuten er in ontzet ting vo orst ond.

man. Hij is een soo r t v.d. veel harmonieuzer, want hij kleur de kracht maar ook de uitdrukking te brengen.’ ebruari 1922

‘We also visited Léger, one of the leading cubists. Nothing in Paris made more of an impression on me than his work, although, I must confess, I was in awe of it in the first five minutes.

Léger is the coming man. He is a kind of v.d. Leck type, but much more harmonious, as he seeks to express power but also finesse through form and colour.’

— Helene Kröller-Müller, 27 February 1922

L éger L eck zoekt fijnheid —Helene

maar Hij vormen als hij Léger, zeer van ondergeschikt

THE INFLUENCE OF CÉZANNE

Paul Cézanne was one of the original impressionists, but gradually takes a different and very individual path. He dissects his subjects into planes and basic forms, such as the sphere, the cylinder and the cone, and experiments with multiple perspectives. By so doing, he bridges the gap between impressionism and cubism. From 1909, he becomes an important source of inspiration for Léger, who follows in Cézanne’s footsteps with his bold, highly complex painting Nude Figures in a Forest . Léger characterizes the painting as above all a battle for the suggestion of volumes. As with Cézanne, colour is of minor importance.

KUNSTENAARSKRING THE CIRCLE OF ARTISTS AT MONTPARNASSE

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The lively artistic milieu of Montparnasse also includes writers and philosophers, whose ideas inspire the painters. Painters influence each other as well: Léger has long been involved in creative competition with his friend Robert Delaunay. He is also among a group of artists, led by Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes and with Henri Le Fauconnier among others, who develop an idiosyncratic, intellectually inclined form of cubism. These artists show their often sizeable works at the annual Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne.

INSPIRATION FROM WRITERS

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In Parisian cafés such as La Closerie des Lilas, stimulating discussion take place between visual and literary artists, thus acquainting painters with the ideas of writers and poets such as Jules Romains, Blaise Cendrars and Guillaume Apollinaire. The philosopher Henri Bergson is also influential with his ideas on the connection between past and present. Jules Romains is the originator of the idealistic Unanimism, which advocates human solidarity and rejects individualism. Fernand Léger is not an avid reader, but certainly takes note of the ideas circulating. Artists thus develop a new view of the world, which is reflected in their work.

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TWO PUBLICATIONS ON CUBISM

In 1912, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes publish Du “cubism” . The book mainly expresses ideas held by the Salon cubists and, in terms of illustrations, these artists are particularly well represented. Picasso and Braque, on the other hand, are given only one illustration each. Léger receives five illustrations, including two Smoke over the Rooftops . One of these works is known only from this illustration.

A year later, Guillaume Apollinaire publishes Les peintres cubistes . He divides his attention more generously between the two groups. This time as well, Léger is given five illustrations, again including two Fumées . One of these has also been lost. Both books are open at the lost canvases.

PICASSO AND BRAQUE

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Léger’s introduction to the cubist works of Picasso, Braque and later Gris teach him to look at space and volumes differently and to interpret reality freely. The cubists combine multiple views of their subjects in the representation, ignoring the classical use of perspective. For Léger, these freedoms open the door to new ways of translating reality onto the flat surface and achieving the abstraction he strives for. Gradually, he develops his own personal form of cubism in which, unlike the work of Picasso and Braque, strong colour contrasts play a major role.

DANIEL-HENRY KAHNWEILER

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In 1907, the 23-year-old Mannheim-born art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler opens a small gallery in rue Vignon. The idealistic Kahnweiler focuses heavily on the avant-garde and develops a great love for the cubism of Picasso, Braque and, somewhat later, Juan Gris. He offers them contracts for exclusive rights to sell their work. In 1911, Léger learns about the work of Picasso and Braque from Kahnweiler, with whom he also signs a contract.

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LÉGER AND DELAUNAY

Léger and Delaunay engage in a stimulating creative competition for many years. Like his friend, Delaunay also seeks abstraction, but his bright, harmonious use of colour is based heavily on that of the ( post- )impressionists. Léger uses a limited palette of often contrasting, almost clashing colours, including black and white, and unlike Delaunay, he uses black outlines. Both are fascinated by urban motifs. Delaunay also paints views of the rooftops in Paris and a series of highly abstract windows, the views from which, however, are not recognizable.

MAIN SUPPLIER LÉONCE ROSENBERG

die overeenkomsten Vanaf Pablo

Man with Guitar by Spanish cubist María Blanchard is one of around ninety works of art acquired by Helene Kröller-Müller from or through Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s idealistic, mystically inclined interpretation of modern art bears similarities to Bremmer’s and Helene’s spiritual views. From 1921, a close business relationship develops. The acquisition of the many cubist works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris, among others, signals the introduction of a new movement in Helene’s collection.

SOLDIERS PLAYING CARDS

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Léonce Rosenberg’s gallery L’Effort Moderne is a regular destination for the Kröllers in Paris. There are no precise purchase details, but Helene must have seen this painting during one of these visits. In January 1924, the work is depicted in the Bulletin de L’Effort Moderne . In December that year, Rosenberg writes to Léger that he still hopes Helene will purchase work by the artist, despite Bremmer’s reservations. This hope is not in vain : in 1927, Soldiers Playing Cards is included in the catalogue of Helene Kröller-Müller’s painting collection.