Fernand Leger – The Two Lovers
Original Fernand Leger The Two Lovers Lithograph
This beautiful lithographic print advertised the opening of Fernand Leger’s exhibition: Paintings at the Musee de Lyon in 1955. It was designed with 4 colours. It is a variant of several paintings by Leger based on “La Partie de Campagne” (a picnic in the countryside).
The subject of leisure time and holidays was very important in the artist’s work, as it had become a law under the Popular Front in France. Leger glorified workers in his paintings, as he saw them as the true heroes of the modern Industrial Age. His work is eternally optimistic, even though he himself had gone through the horrors of World War I as a soldier, along with his close friend, Fernand Mourlot.
Medium: Original Stone Lithograph
Dimensions: 76.2 x 52.1 cm
Arches Paper – Good Condition A
b. 1881, Argentan, France
Fernand Léger was a French painter, sculptor and print maker. Considered a foundational figure in the development of Cubism alongside contemporaries Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, painter Fernand Léger pioneered an abstract style all of his own: His aesthetic, which features bold primary colours and disjointed, conical forms, has been informally called “Tubism.” Léger’s graphic, flattened scenes of contemporary city life, circuses, and common objects offered an accessible approach to Cubist styles. His bold simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art. His mature work underwent many changes, from his Cubist-derived abstraction in the 1910s to distinctive realist imagery in the 1950s. His service during World War I sparked an interest in the machines and elements of industry that appear across his later canvases.
In the decade before his death, Léger’s wide-ranging projects included book illustrations, monumental figure paintings and murals, stained-glass windows, mosaics, polychrome ceramic sculptures, and set and costume designs. In 1955 he won the Grand Prize at the São Paulo Bienal. Léger died on August 17 of that year at his home in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. The Musée Fernand Léger was inaugurated in 1960 in Biot, France.