Artwork Page for Still Life with Bottle

Details / Information for Still Life with Bottle

Still Life with Bottle

1923

Fernand Léger

(French, 1881–1955)
Culture
France
Medium
graphite on tan wove paper
Measurements
Sheet: 25.3 x 32.3 cm (9 15/16 x 12 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2024.30
Copyright
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Fernand Léger considered drawing essential to his process and encouraged his own students to draw constantly.

Description

Influenced by Cubist artists Picasso and Braque, Fernand Léger went on to create his own distinctive variation of their style, which he called Purism. This drawing exemplifies the movement’s formal concerns, which included clear and precise lines and geometric abstraction. Still life—here a bottle, book, and candlestick, among other objects—was a preferred subject for its perceived neutrality. The objectivity of such subjects and the clean aesthetic used to present them was a response to the chaos of World War I, in which Léger served.
Graphite on horizontally oriented tan paper with deckled edges outlines a still life of overlapping geometric forms. In the center, a shaded tall bottle rises behind a splayed, open book. To the left, a faceted sphere rests on a tilted plane; to the right, a round fruit and cylinder lie atop a wavy, scalloped surface. Smooth gray shading defines intersecting rectangles and curves. Small initials and a year mark the lower right.

Still Life with Bottle

1923

Fernand Léger

(French, 1881–1955)
France

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