after Fernand Leger Artwork Details

 

 

Detailed Description

Publisher: Teriade, Paris, France.
Printed by: Mourlot Freres , Paris, France
Provenance: Alan Cristea Gallery, Cork Street, London Reference: Lawrence Sapphire (Catalogue raisonee) - page 238
Edition Size: 9/180

Note 1: In 1954 Leger began to create a series of 29 lithographs, a monumental work comparable with “a Cirque’ which he had made some while before. Leger made numerous studies for these lithographs and proofs in black and white were made for two of the pieces before his death. In 1959 Teriade, the famous art publisher, created an album containing 29 proofs in colours suitable for the works which Leger had made. Each plate of the ”La Ville” is marked with the signature stamp of the artist and numbered from an edition of 1 to 180. The preface to the work describes in some detail the theme behind what was hoped to be achieved: Leger conceived the project of illustrating a book on the theme of “La Ville” - this was Paris. Paris inspired his work in the markets and the abbatoirs of Vaugirard. Thence he passes by Montparnasse and the Rue Notre Dame des Champs; Crossing the Seinne: the road of lovers, its soldiers and its dealers of all the seasons, the stations, the quais and their dealers in birds. He goes on to The Eifel Tower and the Opera. He passes old memories or recent ones such as the singer on the radio or the smell of the petrol pump. These memories are of the life and times which evoked the universe of the painter during his lifetime. Leger had a great deal to say about his town. Especially of the roads he loved always to find searching for a new element in his paintings. He comes , at the end , to the Moulin Rouge which was the last plate of the work which was, alas, interrupted by the death of the artist. It was impossible after his death to realise the book which he had planned. However all the drawings and plans he had made were interpreted and created into the project in a collaboration between Fernand Mourlot, the Parisian Master Printer, and his widow, Madame Fernand Leger.