GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The monumental bodies of Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner) are composed of sleek gray cones, planes, and cylinders. They resemble both machined metal forms and the smooth marble limbs of classical sculpture. Fernand Léger painted this work during a part of his career that he called “the monumental period, the massive phase, the compositions with large figures, the enlargement of the details.” The painting is dominated by three human bodies. One is a reclining nude, a type of modern odalisque, while the others stand at center, one figure clothed in bright colors and the other nude. The figures surround and partially conceal a still life on a round table or tray. The subject of standing and reclining nudes accompanied by a still life, suggesting an informal meal or picnic, was one that Léger explored in a series of ambitious works during the early 1920s, a time when he was particularly intrigued with the study of earlier French art. His exploration of traditional artistic themes was accompanied by the development of a new language for describing the human form.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2010.
NOTES
Created in 1920
Text entries done, Checked Piction
The dominant element of Three Women and Still Life, Déjeuner, is the femal odalisque—at once modern in its stylization and yet suggestive of the classical aesthetic tradition. The massive figures are colored a cool, sleek, gun metal gray, which can be tied to the subdued tones of analytical cubism but also evokes the marbles of antique sculpture.
Léger's dialogue with tradition is always balanced, however, with the artist's unceasing exploration of an inventive pictorial vocabulary of machine-inspired objects and fragments whose clarity and precision were key elements of the painting style known as purism. The distortion of anatomy is readily apparent in the two women standing at the center of the composition, reduced to a columnar assemblage of gently convex elements. The monumental female figures are characterized by a certain impassivity or emotional neutrality. Their limbs are exaggerated; body parts are isolated. Anatomical elements take on the same pictorial significance as the essentially abstract forms of the background or the generic, purist-inspired objects of the still life toward the center of the composition. Léger never forsakes the principle of plastic contrasts which guided his earlier, almost purely abstract paintings. Not only is human anatomy dissected and distorted, but it is audaciously set against the juxtaposed color planes of the architectural background, a passage clearly inspired by the reductive aesthetic principles of the de Stijl movement.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner)", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 127.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Guggenheim, New York~Learn more about the life and work of Fernand Léger.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1982.27.FA
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
The monumental bodies of Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner) are composed of sleek gray cones, planes, and cylinders. They resemble both machined metal forms and the smooth marble limbs of classical sculpture. Fernand Léger painted this work during a part of his career that he called “the monumental period, the massive phase, the compositions with large figures, the enlargement of the details.” The painting is dominated by three human bodies. One is a reclining nude, a type of modern odalisque, while the others stand at center, one figure clothed in bright colors and the other nude. The figures surround and partially conceal a still life on a round table or tray. The subject of standing and reclining nudes accompanied by a still life, suggesting an informal meal or picnic, was one that Léger explored in a series of ambitious works during the early 1920s, a time when he was particularly intrigued with the study of earlier French art. His exploration of traditional artistic themes was accompanied by the development of a new language for describing the human form.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2010.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Created in 1920
Text entries done, Checked Piction
The dominant element of Three Women and Still Life, Déjeuner, is the femal odalisque—at once modern in its stylization and yet suggestive of the classical aesthetic tradition. The massive figures are colored a cool, sleek, gun metal gray, which can be tied to the subdued tones of analytical cubism but also evokes the marbles of antique sculpture.
Léger's dialogue with tradition is always balanced, however, with the artist's unceasing exploration of an inventive pictorial vocabulary of machine-inspired objects and fragments whose clarity and precision were key elements of the painting style known as purism. The distortion of anatomy is readily apparent in the two women standing at the center of the composition, reduced to a columnar assemblage of gently convex elements. The monumental female figures are characterized by a certain impassivity or emotional neutrality. Their limbs are exaggerated; body parts are isolated. Anatomical elements take on the same pictorial significance as the essentially abstract forms of the background or the generic, purist-inspired objects of the still life toward the center of the composition. Léger never forsakes the principle of plastic contrasts which guided his earlier, almost purely abstract paintings. Not only is human anatomy dissected and distorted, but it is audaciously set against the juxtaposed color planes of the architectural background, a passage clearly inspired by the reductive aesthetic principles of the de Stijl movement.
Dorothy Kosinski, "Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner)", in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Suzanne Kotz (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 1997), 127.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1982.27.FA
source file
object_notes_2_c-0312.xml.nores