Fernand Léger (1881-1955) - french painter, master decorative arts. This was in 1913. Fernand Léger was sitting with his friends in the Parisian cafe "Closerie de Lila", popular among artists and poets, and suddenly a girl on a bicycle flashed past, like a vision. She was in a wedding dress and a light, cloud-like veil. It turns out that she was given a bicycle for the wedding, and she, having decided to try it out, came from Normandy directly from wedding table, behind which she was supposed to sit next to the son of a village notary, to Paris, where she won the heart of Fernand Léger himself.
They say that this is not entirely true, perhaps all this is an eccentric invention of the famous critic, Leger's friend - Blaise Cendrars. However, Fernand Leger himself, and his first wife Jeanne Doi, repeated it more than once as a true story. Otherwise, why are there so many girls on bicycles in his paintings, why does he have such an addiction to technology, to the sparkle of spinning wheels, to “machinism” in general?!
Fernand Leger was born on February 4, 1881 in Normandy, in the town of Argentan. His father was a livestock farmer and died very early. And his mother, whom Fernand loved endlessly, did not quite understand his desire to be an artist at all costs. He graduated from the city college and then from the church school in Tenchebres, and at the age of sixteen his uncle-guardian advised him to go to Cannes to study architecture. In 1899, Fernand moved to Paris, where he worked as a draftsman for an architect for three years, served with the 2nd sapper regiment in Versailles. Only in 1903 did he begin to seriously study painting at the School of Decorative Arts, in the free studios of the School of Fine Arts, where he studied under the painter Gabriel Ferrier and the sculptor Léon Gérôme, and at the Académie Julian. He had the opportunity to visit the Louvre and get acquainted with the work of famous masters.
Those who knew Fernand Leger said that he sometimes surprised him with his familiar simplicity and even rudeness, but, according to many, he was very lonely. Together with Andre Mare, Fernand rented a studio where he could paint, while he worked part-time with an architect and photographer. His first paintings "My Mother's Garden" and "Portrait of an Uncle", written in 1905, were made under the influence of Andre Martin, very catchy, pasty. Later, Fernand Leger was influenced by Fauvism and Cezanne's constructive interpretation of form.
Léger found new stimuli for creativity by settling in the Passage de Danzig at the La Ruche (Beehive) hotel. A whole colony of artists lived there at that time - Archipenko, Laurent, Chagall, Soutine, Robert Delaunay and writers - Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars.
A huge impression on Fernand Leger in 1907 was made by the posthumous exhibition of Cezanne. He himself began to exhibit, in 1908 and 1909 he sent his works, written on the island of Corsica, to the exhibitions of the Autumn Salon, and his drawings to the 1910 exhibition. And then he suddenly became interested in cubism and destroyed almost all of his old canvases.
Now, with his work more and more rigorously emphasizing volume, he embarked on a series of works "Contrasts of Form" and exhibited his work at the exhibition of the Independents. The highlight of the Salon was Fernand Léger's painting "Nudes in the Forest", on which he worked for two whole years (1909-1911).
Fernand Léger received among his friends the nickname "tube player" (a play on words "tube-tubiste" - trumpet-pipe), and renowned critic Metzinger wrote: "Fernand Léger measures day and night, weighs the masses, calculates resistance. His compositions ... are living body, whose organs are trees and figures of people. An austere artist, Fernand Léger is fascinated by this biology-affecting deep side painting that Michelangelo and Leonardo anticipated."
Fernand Leger himself claimed that he was following the traditions of French impressionism, in which he was not satisfied not with an excess of color, but with a lack of constructive force, which he "tried to increase by strengthening, hypertrophy of volumes and plastic forms. Already in his first conceptual works Fernand Léger used elements that later became the basis of almost all of his compositions - truncated cones reminiscent of machine parts, disconnected volumes and modified, deformed hands with tightly closed fingers.
Fernand Leger did not seek to imitate the Cubists, he was interested in revealing the essence of volumes. And if Delaunay used semitones, Leger tried to show the frankness of each color and volume. "My colors are alive," he said. "I wanted to achieve pure, local tones, so that the red was very red, the blue was very blue." Fernand Leger sees "contrasts of form" not only in abstractions, but also in objects ("Still life with a book", "Alarm clock"), human figures ("Lying naked body") and even in nature ("Trees between houses"). And his paintings such as "Balcony", "Staircase", etc., amazed everyone with their dynamism.
1913, when most of these works were created, was special for Fernand Léger. It was then that he met his first wife, "cyclist" Jeanne, signed a lucrative contract with Kahnweiler, which allowed him to rent a comfortable studio on Notre-Dame-de-Champs Street, where he worked all his life. Much has been written about him, and he himself lectured. One of them - "The sources of painting and its pictorial value" - was a particularly resounding success. Léger considered himself a follower of Cezanne and emphasized that by using "painterly contrasts of colors, lines, shapes" one could move "from intense realism" to cognitive one. The outbreak of the First World War, service in the sapper troops, and then gas poisoning, treatment in the hospital interrupted active creative work for several years and became years of deep reflection for Leger. He made only small sketches and collages on the lids of the boxes from under the shells.
Only after demobilization in 1917, Fernand Léger got the opportunity to work again. In 1922, he confessed: “Three years without a single brushstroke, but in direct contact with the cruelest and roughest reality. Having gained freedom, I benefit from these hard years, I make a decision: when creating plastic images, use only pure and local colors and large volumes, without making any compromises. I refuse deals with the generally accepted taste, from the dullness of the palette, from the dead surfaces of the background. I no longer wander in the darkness of my ideas, but see clearly. I'm not afraid to admit: I was shaped by the war."
The theme of his compositions are various mechanisms, machines and people in the city ("Mechanic in the shop", "Acrobats in the circus", "Two workers on the scaffolding", "City", etc.).
In 1925, he announced his idea to introduce color not only into the exteriors, but also into the interiors of housing, banks, hospitals, factories, thus creating an architectonic space. He dreamed that the paintings would become a kind of opposite to the wall. “I love the forms,” he admitted, “imposed on us by modern industry, and I use them: steel structures sparkling with thousands of glare, much thinner and more durable than the so-called classical plots.”
Fernand Leger enthusiastically collaborated with cinematographers, participating in the creation of the film "The Wheel" (directed by Abel Gance) and others in 1921. With the assistance of operators, in 1924 he shot his film "Mechanical Ballet". In 1923-1926, Fernand Leger, combining purism, cubism and super-realism, created a series of compositions that were built according to a strictly mechanical scheme from vertically cut planes ("Umbrella and bowler hat", "Accordion", etc.).
In the painting of Fernand Léger, to which he returned in 1927, enlarged personifications began to appear.
bathroom details (the undoubted influence of cinematography had an effect here). In the compositions "Leaves and Shells", "Still Life with Three Keys" and other objects created at that time, they seem to be scattered over the canvas and at the same time invisibly support each other. Then the artist was fascinated by the monumentality of the images. In 1933, together with Le Corbusier, Fernand Leger traveled to Greece, where he took part in the International Congress of Modern Architecture.
In 1932-1935, Fernand Léger taught at the Academy of the "Big Hut" and, with the help of his student, the Belarusian artist Nadia Khodasevich, who at one time took lessons from Kazimir Malevich, began to run his own studio. Exhibitions of Fernand Leger were exhibited all over the world, in 1936 he received recognition in America.
In the late 30s, Fernand Léger became interested in creating monumental paintings and wall decorations. However, his projects did not attract organizers. world exhibition in Paris in 1937. He was offered only one order - a grandiose wall painting "Energy Transfer" for the "Palace of Discoveries". He depicted power masts and transformers against the backdrop of a landscape with traces of a storm, in the light of a huge rainbow. With enthusiasm, Léger designed mass holidays, and also made scenery, decorated houses.
The beginning of the Second World War, the military defeats of France very painfully echoed in the soul of Fernand Léger. He was forced to move from city to city, and then generally emigrated to the United States, where he was offered to head the department at Yale University, and then at Mills College in California. During the years of emigration, Fernand Leger created about 120 paintings, but most of them are a rethinking of the world of his own drawings and paintings brought to emigration. As he himself admitted, perhaps under the influence of the climate or the rhythm of life, in America he worked somewhat faster than before. Fernand Léger did projects theatrical scenery, sketches to interior decoration Radio City and Rockefeller Center, designed stained glass windows, sketched polychrome sculptures (together with Marie Kellery).
Once, while watching the dockers of Marseilles, having fun, pushed each other into the water, Fernand Leger decided to conduct a kind of experiment - to figuratively rethink a person in space, at the moment of flight. "Divers on a yellow background", "Acrobats in grey", "Dance" and similar calligraphic signs "Big Black Divers" are all links of the same chain. The themes of many of his compositions at that time were the circus and the folk orchestra. In the most different options depicts Fernand Leger cyclists - "Beautiful cyclists", "Big Julie", later - "Two cyclists", "Leisure".
His friends wondered how he managed to correct the work of his numerous students, make scenery, decorate books, organize exhibitions, deal with manuscripts and ceramics, and even give lectures in which he sharply opposed both abstractionism and socialist realism.
Fernand Léger received many orders for monumental works, began to decorate not only secular buildings, but also temples, and finally realized his old dream - he combined various visual means in one huge picture "The Big Parade".
After the death of his first wife, Zhanna, his student, the Belarusian artist Nadya Khodasevich, whose paintings and sketches always inspired him, walked hand in hand with him. When, in February 1952, a French artist asked Nadia if it was true that she was marrying Fernand Léger, she answered proudly:
I marry labor.
They lived together for only a few years - on August 17, 1955, Fernand Léger passed away. But it was thanks to Nadia Léger, who was always supported by Georges Bocquier, that the Leger Memorial Museum in Biot was created, on the facade of which there is a huge, 400 square meters, ceramic composition, designed by Léger. The dynamism of ceramics is emphasized by the huge colored sculpture "Flower-Sun". So, already after death, the monumental ideas of the great artist came to life, who, having comprehended the foundations of constructive rhythm, made tangible a space full of clarity and harmony.
Bogdanov P.S., Bogdanova G.B.
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger(fr. Joseph Fernand Henri Léger; -) - French painter and sculptor, master of decorative art, member of the Communist Party.
Biography [ | ]
Fernand Leger was born on February 4, 1881 in the Normandy city of Argentan in northern France. His father, Henri Armand Léger, who raised livestock, died a few years after the birth of the future artist. Her mother, born Marie Adele Dunon, lived on her farm in Lisore until her death in 1922.
- 1890-1896 Studied at the Arzhantan college and at the church school in Tenshebre
- 1897-1899 Studying with an architect at Cannes
- 1900-1902 Goes to Paris; works as a draftsman for an architect
- 1902-1903 Is in military service in the 2nd sapper regiment in Versailles
- 1903 Enters higher school decorative arts. Gets denied admission to High School fine arts; attends as a volunteer the courses of Jerome and Ferrier, as well as the Académie Julian; often goes to the Louvre. IN early work Léger is noticeably influenced by Impressionism.
- 1904-1907 Leads a heavy working life; together with his countryman Andre Mar rents a studio. Works for an architect and as a retoucher for a photographer. Illness forces him to spend the winter of 1907 with his friend Viel in Corsica, in Beltoder, where he subsequently returns several times. Shocked by Cezanne's posthumous exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants in 1907
- 1908-1909 Settles in the "Hive", where he meets Archipenko, Laurent, Lipchitz, later with Soutine, Chagall, Delaunay and their guests: Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Renal, Cendrars and others. Some of them become his friends. Takes part in the Autumn Salon. He meets the primitive artist Henri Rousseau - the Customs Officer. From the city of Leger, it adjoins a new direction, cubism. In the future, the plots of his works become more and more abstract, although at a later stage Léger departs from abstractionism, at least in his easel works. A significant place in Leger's work is occupied by social and industrial themes. In addition to painting, the artist was also engaged in ceramics, book illustrations, designing clothes and carpets, worked in theater and cinema.
- 1910 Owner art gallery Kahnweiler, a supporter of Picasso and Braque, buys several of Léger's paintings, allowing Léger to move to rue Ancienne Comédie a year later. In Puteaux he meets Jacques Villon and through him with the Golden Section group.
- 1911 Together with Gleizes, Delaunay and others, he participates in the exhibition "Independents": in room number 41, nicknamed the "hall of the Cubists", he exhibits the painting "Nudes in the Forest". Together with this group, he exhibits in Brussels. Participates in the Autumn Salon with the painting "Wedding". Together with André Mar, he develops a project for the interior of the dining room and study
- 1912 Exhibits the picture "Smokers" at the "Independents" and "The Woman in Blue" in the Autumn Salon. He also participates in other general exhibitions, in particular in the exhibition of the Golden Section group. First exhibition at the Kahnweiler Gallery
- 1913 In May, at the Vasilyeva Academy, he gives a lecture on The Origins of Painting and Its Visual Value, the text of which is published in Paris, Berlin and Bergen. Participates in the exhibition "Independent", in the "Armory Show" and in the first exhibition of the Autumn Salon in Berlin. In October, he signed an agreement with Kahnweiler to sell his works to him. He rents a studio at 86 Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, which he retains for the rest of his life.
- 1914-1916 In May 1914 he delivered a new lecture "New discoveries in modern painting" at the Vasilyeva Academy. On August 2, he was mobilized and sent to sapper troops. For two years he has been at the front near the Argons and Verdun. Draws in trenches and quarterings. In September 1916, near Verdun, where he was engaged in transporting the wounded, he was gassed.
- 1917 Recovered in Villepinte. Starts painting again. At the end of the year, he is discharged from military service.
- 1918-1919 Hard work, making illustrations for the works of Cendrars. Marries Jeanne Loy. Starts working on the paintings "Disks", "City", "Mechanical Elements". Exhibits his work in the Parisian gallery of Léonce Rosenberg "Effor modern" and in Antwerp in the gallery "Selexion"
- 1920 Befriends Le Corbusier at the founding of Esprit Nouveau. He paints canvases "Mechanic" and "Big Lunch". Since this year, for many years exhibited at the "Independent"
- 1921 Together with Cendrars, he participates in the work on the film The Wheel by Abel Gance. Illustrates the book by André Malraux "Paper Moons". Meets Van Doesburg and Mondrian
- 1922 Designs sets, costumes and curtains for the production of The Skating Rink to music by Darius Milhaud for the Swedish Ballet Ralph de Mare
- 1923 Designs sets and costumes for the ballet The Creation to music by Milhaud, based on a libretto by Cendrars directed by Ralph de Marais. Works on the scenery for the film "Inhuman" by Marcel L'Herbier with music by Milhaud; participates in the preparation of the project of one of the halls of the exhibition "Independent"
- 1924 Directs the film "" (cameramen Man Ray and Dudley Murphy, music by J. Antheil). Together with Ozanfant, Marie Laurencin and Alexandra Ekster opens a free art school. Reads a lecture at the Sorbonne. Together with Rosenberg, he travels around Italy, admires Ravenna
- 1925-1927 With some difficulty, it is possible to exhibit an abstract panel at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in the Le Corbusier pavilion and in the Mallet-Stevens pavilion, demonstrating the building designs of one of French embassies. Exhibitions: Anderson Gallery, New York; Brooklyn Museum; gallery "Catre Chemen", Paris; personal retrospective exhibition at the "Independent". Shows more and more interest in subjects
- 1928 Exhibits 100 works and lectures at the Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin; exhibition at the gallery "Effor modern" in Paris
- 1929 Together with Ozanfant, he opens the Modern Academy
- 1930 Exhibitions in London at the Leicester Gallery and in Paris at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery. Meet Calder.
- 1931 Spends the summer in Austria with his friends Marfi. In September-December he makes a trip to New York and Chicago. Exhibitions at the galleries of John Becker and Durand-Ruel
- 1932 Teaches at the Big Hut Academy. Visits the Scandinavian countries. Exhibition in New York, at the Valentin Gallery
- 1933 Great exhibition in Zurich, in the Kunsthaus, at which Léger is personally present. Together with Le Corbusier, he travels to Greece for an international congress of modern architecture. On the way back on the ship he gives a lecture on "Architecture and life"
- 1934 Exhibition at the Vignon Gallery. Spends summers at Marfi's in Antibes. In August, in London, he is preparing the scenery for the film by H. J. Wells "The Shape of Things of the Future." In September, an exhibition in Stockholm at the Modern Gallery. Lecture at the Sorbonne "From the Acropolis to the Eiffel Tower"
- 1935 At the world exhibition in Brussels decorates the hall physical education, designed by Charlotte Perriand. In October, he again travels to the United States, where he meets with Le Corbusier. Big exhibition at the Museum contemporary art in New York and at the Art Institute of Chicago
- 1936 in "Discussions on Realism" emphasizes his spiritual independence. Exhibited at the Salon of Mural Art
- 1937 Scenery for Serge Lifar's ballet "David Triumphant" to Rieti's music, staged at the Paris Opera. Sketches for decorations for a trade union holiday at the Winter Velodrome and panels for the Palace of Discoveries at the World Exhibition in Paris, whose management had previously rejected several projects. In November, he gives a lecture in Antwerp called "Color in the World". Exhibition at the Artek Gallery in Helsinki, where he meets Aalto
- 1938-1939 Spends summer with Le Corbusier in Vézelay; from September to March, he is in the USA, where he performs murals for the apartments of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr. Reads a course of eight lectures at Yale University on the topic: "Color in Architecture." In Paris, he sketches the scenery for the play by J.R. Blok "The Birth of a City", staged at the Winter Velodrome
- 1940-1945 Lives in exile in the USA. He taught at Yale University (Faucillon, Millau, Maurois also teach there). Donates "Composition with Two Parrots" to the New York Museum of Modern Art. In the summer, he lectures at Millis College, where he organizes an exhibition of his paintings. Starts working on the "Divers" series. Exhibits at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery. Meets Pierre Matisse with other refugee artists, makes friends with the father of R. P. Couturier. Makes a series of drawings for Hans Richter's film "Dreams that money can buy." Exhibitions: Foggre Museum of Art, Cambridge; the Valentine Gallery and the Samuel Koetz Gallery, New York; Louis Caret Gallery, Paris. In December 1945 he returns to France. Also in 1945 he becomes a member of the French Communist Party.
- 1946-1947 - Father R. P. Couturier orders Leger mosaics and stained-glass windows for the church, which the artist finishes in 1949. Reads a report at the Sorbonne in the course of lectures "Labor and Culture". Exhibition at the Louis Caret Gallery, Paris. He spends the summer of 1947 in Normandy.
- 1948 - Performs scenery for the ballet "
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger(fr. Joseph Fernand Henri Leger; -) - French painter and sculptor, master of decorative art, member of the Communist Party.
Biography
Compositions
- Fonctions de la peinture, P., 1970.
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Notes
Literature
- Sagalovich M.V. In the footsteps of Fernand Léger. - M .: Soviet artist, 1983. - 352 p. - (Stories about artists).
- "Fernand Léger" by Gaston Diehl, Printed in Hungary, 1985, Kossuth Printing House
- Zhadova L. A. Fernand Leger. - M .: Art, 1970. - 144 p.
- Descargues P., Fernand Leger, P., 1955;
- Hoinmage a Fernand Leger, P., 1971.
Links
| Fernand Léger at Wikiquote |
An excerpt characterizing Léger, Fernand
On the square where the sovereign went, the battalion of the Preobrazhenians stood face to face on the right, the battalion of the French guards in bear hats on the left.While the sovereign was approaching one flank of the battalions, which had made guard duty, another crowd of horsemen jumped to the opposite flank, and ahead of them Rostov recognized Napoleon. It couldn't be anyone else. He rode at a gallop in a small hat, with St. Andrew's ribbon over his shoulder, in a blue uniform open over a white camisole, on an unusually thoroughbred Arabian gray horse, on a crimson, gold embroidered saddle. Riding up to Alexander, he raised his hat, and with this movement, the cavalry eye of Rostov could not fail to notice that Napoleon was badly and not firmly sitting on his horse. The battalions shouted: Hurray and Vive l "Empereur! [Long live the Emperor!] Napoleon said something to Alexander. Both emperors got off their horses and took each other's hands. Napoleon had an unpleasantly fake smile on his face. Alexander with an affectionate expression said something to him .
Rostov did not take his eyes off, despite the trampling by the horses of the French gendarmes, besieging the crowd, followed every movement of Emperor Alexander and Bonaparte. As a surprise, he was struck by the fact that Alexander behaved as an equal with Bonaparte, and that Bonaparte was completely free, as if this closeness with the sovereign was natural and familiar to him, as an equal, he treated the Russian Tsar.
Alexander and Napoleon with a long tail of retinue approached the right flank of the Preobrazhensky battalion, right on the crowd that was standing there. The crowd unexpectedly found itself so close to the emperors that Rostov, who was standing in the front ranks of it, became afraid that they would not recognize him.
- Sire, je vous demande la permission de donner la legion d "honneur au plus brave de vos soldats, [Sir, I ask you for permission to give the Order of the Legion of Honor to the bravest of your soldiers,] said a sharp, precise voice, finishing each letter This was said by Bonaparte, small in stature, looking directly into Alexander's eyes from below.
- A celui qui s "est le plus vaillament conduit dans cette derieniere guerre, [To the one who showed himself the most bravely during the war]," Napoleon added, rapping out each syllable, with outrageous calmness and confidence for Rostov, looking around the ranks of Russians stretched out in front of him soldiers, keeping everything on guard and looking motionlessly into the face of their emperor.
- Votre majeste me permettra t elle de demander l "avis du colonel? [Your Majesty will allow me to ask the colonel's opinion?] - said Alexander and took a few hasty steps towards Prince Kozlovsky, the battalion commander. Meanwhile, Bonaparte began to take off his white glove, small hand and tearing it, he threw it in. The adjutant, hastily rushing forward from behind, picked it up.
- To whom to give? - not loudly, in Russian, Emperor Alexander asked Kozlovsky.
- Whom do you order, Your Majesty? The sovereign grimaced with displeasure and, looking around, said:
“Yes, you have to answer him.
Kozlovsky looked back at the ranks with a resolute air, and in this look captured Rostov as well.
“Is it not me?” thought Rostov.
- Lazarev! the colonel commanded, frowning; and the first-ranking soldier, Lazarev, briskly stepped forward.
– Where are you? Stop here! - voices whispered to Lazarev, who did not know where to go. Lazarev stopped, glancing fearfully at the colonel, and his face twitched, as happens with soldiers called to the front.
Napoleon slightly turned his head back and pulled back his small plump hand, as if wanting to take something. The faces of his retinue, guessing at the same moment what was the matter, fussed, whispered, passing something to one another, and the page, the same one whom Rostov had seen yesterday at Boris, ran forward and respectfully leaned over the outstretched hand and did not make her wait for a single moment. one second, put an order on a red ribbon into it. Napoleon, without looking, squeezed two fingers. The Order found itself between them. Napoleon approached Lazarev, who, rolling his eyes, stubbornly continued to look only at his sovereign, and looked back at Emperor Alexander, showing by this that what he was doing now, he was doing for his ally. Small white hand with the order touched the button of the soldier Lazarev. As if Napoleon knew that in order for this soldier to be happy, rewarded and distinguished from everyone else in the world forever, it was only necessary that Napoleon's hand deign to touch the soldier's chest. Napoleon only put the cross on Lazarev's chest and, letting go of his hand, turned to Alexander, as if he knew that the cross should stick to Lazarev's chest. The cross really stuck.
Helpful Russian and French hands, instantly picking up the cross, attached it to the uniform. Lazarev looked gloomily at little man, with white hands, who did something over him, and continuing to hold him motionless on guard, again began to look straight into Alexander's eyes, as if he was asking Alexander whether he was still standing, or whether they would order him to walk now, or maybe do anything else? But nothing was ordered to him, and he remained in this motionless state for quite some time.
The sovereigns sat on horseback and left. The Preobrazhenians, upsetting their ranks, mingled with the French guards and sat down at the tables prepared for them.
Lazarev was sitting in a place of honor; he was embraced, congratulated and shook hands by Russian and French officers. Crowds of officers and people came up just to look at Lazarev. The buzz of Russian French and laughter stood in the square around the tables. Two officers with flushed faces, cheerful and happy, walked past Rostov.
- What, brother, treats? Everything is in silver,” said one. Have you seen Lazarev?
- Saw.
- Tomorrow, they say, the Preobrazhensky people will treat them.
- No, Lazarev is so lucky! 10 francs for life pension.
- That's the hat, guys! shouted the Preobrazhensky, putting on a Frenchman's shaggy hat.
- A miracle, how good, lovely!
Did you hear the feedback? said the Guards officer to another. The third day was Napoleon, France, bravoure; [Napoleon, France, courage;] yesterday Alexandre, Russie, grandeur; [Alexander, Russia, greatness;] one day our sovereign gives a review, and the other day Napoleon. Tomorrow the sovereign will send George to the bravest of the French guards. It's impossible! Should answer the same.
Boris and his comrade Zhilinsky also came to see the Preobrazhensky banquet. Returning back, Boris noticed Rostov, who was standing at the corner of the house.
- Rostov! Hello; we didn’t see each other,” he told him, and could not help asking him what had happened to him: Rostov’s face was so strangely gloomy and upset.
“Nothing, nothing,” answered Rostov.
– Will you come?
- Yes, I will.
Rostov stood at the corner for a long time, looking at the feasters from afar. A painful work was going on in his mind, which he could not bring to the end. Terrible doubts arose in my heart. Then he remembered Denisov with his changed expression, with his humility, and the whole hospital with those torn off arms and legs, with this dirt and disease. It seemed to him so vividly that he now felt this hospital smell of a dead body that he looked around to understand where this smell could come from. Then he remembered this self-satisfied Bonaparte with his white pen, who was now the emperor, whom the emperor Alexander loves and respects. What are the severed arms, legs, murdered people for? Then he remembered the awarded Lazarev and Denisov, punished and unforgiven. He found himself thinking such strange thoughts that he was afraid of them.
The smell of Preobrazhensky food and hunger brought him out of this state: he had to eat something before leaving. He went to the hotel he had seen in the morning. In the hotel, he found so many people, officers, who, like him, arrived in civilian clothes, that he hardly managed to get dinner. Two officers from the same division as him joined him. The conversation naturally turned to the world. The officers, comrades of Rostov, like most of the army, were dissatisfied with the peace concluded after Friedland. They said that if they could hold on, Napoleon would have disappeared, that he had no crackers or charges in his troops. Nicholas ate in silence and mostly drank. He drank one or two bottles of wine. The inner work that arose in him, not being resolved, still tormented him. He was afraid to indulge in his thoughts and could not get behind them. Suddenly, at the words of one of the officers that it was insulting to look at the French, Rostov began to shout with fervor, which was not justified in any way, and therefore greatly surprised the officers.
“And how can you judge which would be better!” he shouted, his face suddenly flushed with blood. - How can you judge the actions of the sovereign, what right do we have to reason ?! We cannot understand either the purpose or the actions of the sovereign!
“Yes, I didn’t say a word about the sovereign,” the officer justified himself, who could not explain his temper to himself except by the fact that Rostov was drunk.
But Rostov did not listen.
“We are not diplomatic officials, but we are soldiers and nothing else,” he continued. - They tell us to die - so die. And if they are punished, it means that they are to blame; not for us to judge. It is pleasing to the sovereign emperor to recognize Bonaparte as emperor and conclude an alliance with him - then it must be so. Otherwise, if we began to judge and reason about everything, nothing sacred would remain that way. So we say that there is no God, there is nothing, - Nikolai shouted, striking the table, very inappropriately, according to the concepts of his interlocutors, but very consistently in the course of his thoughts.
“Our business is to do our duty, to fight and not to think, that’s all,” he concluded.
“And drink,” said one of the officers, who did not want to quarrel.
“Yes, and drink,” Nikolai picked up. - Hey, you! Another bottle! he shouted.
In 1808, Emperor Alexander went to Erfurt for a new meeting with Emperor Napoleon, and in the highest Petersburg society they talked a lot about the greatness of this solemn meeting.
In 1809, the proximity of the two rulers of the world, as Napoleon and Alexander were called, reached such a point that when Napoleon declared war on Austria that year, the Russian corps went abroad to assist their former enemy Bonaparte against their former ally, the Austrian emperor; before that in high society talked about the possibility of marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of Emperor Alexander. But, in addition to external political considerations, at that time the attention of Russian society with particular vivacity was drawn to the internal transformations that were being carried out at that time in all parts of the state administration.
Life in the meantime real life people with their own essential interests of health, illness, work, recreation, with their own interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, went as always independently and outside of political proximity or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte, and outside of all possible transformations.
Prince Andrei lived without a break for two years in the countryside. All those enterprises on estates that Pierre started at home and did not bring to any result, constantly moving from one thing to another, all these enterprises, without showing them to anyone and without noticeable labor, were carried out by Prince Andrei.
He had in the highest degree that practical tenacity that Pierre lacked, which, without scope and effort on his part, gave movement to the matter.
One of his estates of three hundred souls of peasants was listed as free cultivators (this was one of the first examples in Russia), in others corvée was replaced by dues. In Bogucharovo, a learned grandmother was issued to his account to help women in childbirth, and the priest taught the children of peasants and yards to read and write for a salary.
One half of the time Prince Andrei spent in the Bald Mountains with his father and son, who was still with the nannies; the other half of the time in the Bogucharovo monastery, as his father called his village. Despite the indifference he showed to Pierre to all the external events of the world, he diligently followed them, received many books, and to his surprise noticed when fresh people from Petersburg, from the very whirlpool of life, came to him or to his father, that these people, in knowledge of everything that happens in foreign and domestic policy, they are far behind him, who is sitting all the time in the countryside.
In addition to classes on estates, in addition to general studies in reading a wide variety of books, Prince Andrei was at that time engaged in a critical analysis of our last two unfortunate campaigns and drawing up a project to change our military regulations and decrees.
In the spring of 1809, Prince Andrei went to the Ryazan estates of his son, whom he was the guardian of.
Warmed by the spring sun, he sat in the carriage, looking at the first grass, the first leaves of the birch, and the first puffs of white spring clouds scattered across the bright blue of the sky. He did not think about anything, but looked cheerfully and senselessly around.
We passed the ferry on which he spoke with Pierre a year ago. We passed a dirty village, threshing floors, greenery, a descent, with the remaining snow near the bridge, an ascent along washed-out clay, a strip of stubble and a shrub that was greening in some places, and drove into a birch forest on both sides of the road. It was almost hot in the forest, the wind could not be heard. The birch tree, all covered with green sticky leaves, did not move, and from under last year's leaves, lifting them, the first grass and purple flowers crawled out green. Scattered in some places along the birch forest, small spruce trees with their coarse eternal greenery unpleasantly reminded of winter. The horses snorted as they rode into the woods and became more sweaty.
The footman Peter said something to the coachman, the coachman answered in the affirmative. But it was not enough for Peter to see the coachman's sympathy: he turned on the goats to the master.
- Your Excellency, how easy! he said, smiling respectfully.
- What!
“Easy, your highness.
"What he says?" thought Prince Andrew. “Yes, it’s true about spring,” he thought, looking around. And then everything is already green ... how soon! And birch, and bird cherry, and alder is already beginning ... And the oak is not noticeable. Yes, here it is, the oak.
There was an oak at the edge of the road. Probably ten times older than the birches that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice as tall as each birch. It was a huge oak tree in two girths with broken branches, which can be seen for a long time, and with broken bark, overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically spread, clumsy hands and fingers, he stood between the smiling birches, an old, angry and contemptuous freak. Only he alone did not want to submit to the charm of spring and did not want to see either spring or the sun.
"Spring, and love, and happiness!" - this oak seemed to be saying, - “and how you don’t get tired of the same stupid and senseless deceit. Everything is the same, and everything is a lie! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness. There, look, crushed dead firs are sitting, always the same, and there I spread my broken, peeled fingers, wherever they grew - from the back, from the sides; as you have grown, so I stand, and I do not believe your hopes and deceptions.
Prince Andrei looked back at this oak tree several times as he drove through the forest, as if he was expecting something from him. There were flowers and grass under the oak, but he still, frowning, motionless, ugly and stubbornly, stood in the middle of them.
“Yes, he is right, this oak is a thousand times right,” thought Prince Andrei, let others, young ones, again succumb to this deception, and we know life, our life is over! Whole new row Hopeless thoughts, but sadly pleasant in connection with this oak, arose in the soul of Prince Andrei. During this journey, it was as if he thought over his whole life again, and came to the same calming and hopeless conclusion that he had no need to start anything, that he should live his life without doing evil, without worrying and desiring nothing.
Fernand Leger is a French painter, sculptor, master of decorative arts and one of the pioneers of cubism.
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was born on February 4, 1881 in the city of Argentan in Normandy, in northwestern France. His father was a cattle trader, but died when his son was 4 years old, so his mother raised him alone. Living in Argentan, Fernand studied at a local college, then at a church school in Tenchebre. At the age of 17, he took lessons from an architect in Cannes.
Like almost all successful french artists of that time, in 1900 he went to Paris, where he worked as a draftsman for another architect. From there in 1902 future artist went to military service in the 2nd sapper regiment in Versailles.
After Service Fernand Léger fails to enter the Higher School of Fine Arts, but he is accepted into the Higher School of Decorative Arts. He also becomes a free student of the courses of painters Gabriel Ferrier and sculptor Leon Gerome. He also visited the Louvre, where he copied the paintings of old masters, studying the classical techniques of painting.
. "Adam and Eve"
In 1910, he got into the Cubist association "Golden Section", after which he destroyed all his previous work. From now on, the anatomical realism of the figures disappears in his canvases, they are replaced by cubic and cylindrical forms. The color scheme also becomes more calm, the paintings are dominated by shades of gray. This new direction was received very favorably by the public in the Salon des Indépendants in 1911, where a separate "Cubist Hall" was set aside.
"Nudes in the Forest"
measures day and night, weighs masses, calculates resistance. His compositions ... are a living body, the organs of which are trees and figures of people. An austere artist, fascinated by this deep side of painting that touches biology, which Michelangelo and Leonardo foresaw."- wrote one of the critics after the exhibition.
In parallel with experiments in cubism, he was engaged in ceramics, design of clothes and carpets, book illustrations, worked as a decorator in theater and cinema.
In 1914, the artist was mobilized into the sapper troops. At the front, he even painted in trenches. In 1916, while transporting the wounded, he was poisoned by German gas, but survived. After the hospital and dismissal, he returns to painting.
The war had a strong influence on the artist. Rethinking his painting again, he firmly decided from now on to use only pure local colors and large volumes, abandoning the dullness of the palette to please public tastes.
One of the main laws in painting Fernand Léger there were laws of contrasts, which he achieved through the use of clear drawing lines and conditional hatching. Leger himself said: In an effort to achieve a state of plastic tension, I apply the law of contrasts, which is eternal as a means of reflecting life. I match valers, lines and conflicting colors. I oppose straight lines to curves, planar surfaces to modeled surfaces, tones in shades to local tones.
Favorite stories Fernand Léger are people in the city, machines and mechanisms.
. "Big Black Divers".
In the 1930s he traveled extensively. And also he was engaged in the design of monumental buildings, for example, the hall of physical culture for the World Exhibition in Brussels, decorated mass holidays.
With the outbreak of World War I, he moved to the United States. There he worked much more fruitfully, in general, during the years of emigration he created about 120 canvases. He also taught at Yale University.
After returning to liberated France, the artist reaches the peak of creativity. He enthusiastically draws the life of workers. The brightest canvas of this period is the painting "Builders" of 1950.
. "Builders". 1950
died in 1955. Through the efforts of his second wife Nadia Leger and his friends, was founded memorial museum artist in Biot. The facade of the museum building is decorated with a huge, 400 sq. Fernand Léger.
Material prepared: Yulia Sidimyantseva
Japan - France - Russia. Mayakovsky on Leger
Utagawa Kunisada I (1786-1865). "Artisans": upper part of a double triptych. Japan, 1858. Inventory number: YAT-3550. State Hermitage.
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada I (1786-1865). Triptych: "Craftsmen" (upper part of a double triptych). Place of origin: Japan. Date of creation: 1858 Publisher, workshop: Publisher Daikokuya Heikichi (Shojudō). Book, album, series: Series "Four estates: samurai, peasants, artisans and merchants". Technique: paper, woodcut. Dimensions: 26x36 cm. Acquisition: Entered in 1981. Transferred by decision of the Leningrad City Court. Not on permanent display.
When looking at this woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada, the French “Builders” by Fernand Léger (1881-1955) from the permanent exhibition of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin and other works by Léger from the Builders series.
2.
Fernand Leger. Builders (Builders with aloe). 1951. Oil on canvas. 160 x 200 cm. Gift of Nadia Léger, Biot. Zh-4085. Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th Centuries. State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. Photo by . See also: painting reproduction
Fernand Leger. Builders (Builders with aloe). 1951. Gift of Nadia Leger - Nadezhda Petrovna Khodasevich-Lezhe (1904-1982) to the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow.
Description of the GMII:
In the early 1950s Léger worked on a series of large pictorial panels intended for decoration. public buildings. The composition "Builders" (1951) is one of the central works of this series. Leger himself explained his passion for the topic of construction in the following way: “This idea came to me on the way to Chevreuse. Three towers were built along the road high voltage. They were crowded with working people. I was amazed at the contrast between these people, the metal architecture, the clouds and the sky. People are so small, as if lost in this strict, stern, hostile ensemble - that's what I wanted to show. I accurately emphasized the plastic significance of human actions, the sky, clouds, metal.
Lying to the limit simplifies artistic techniques. The contrasts of bright, active colors in combination with the generalized forms of the drawing are similar to the means used by the modern poster, monumental and decorative art. Leger achieves special expressiveness with a clear compositional construction and contrasts of rhythm, either accelerated in the verticals of structures and clouds, or slowed down in the wide horizontals of beams. In the work of the artist, with his exaggeration of the mechanicalness of movement, the realities of the industrial era are reflected.
3.
Fragment. Fernand Leger. Builders (Builders with aloe). 1951. Pushkin Museum, Moscow. Photo by
The painting has now been moved to the Main Building for the exhibition “Facing the Future. The Art of Europe 1945-1968” and even became the face of the exhibition: she is on the cover of the catalog and on souvenirs for the exhibition.
4.
Book dust jacket: Library of World Literature. Volume 152. Western European poetry of the XX century. Introductory article by Robert Rozhdestvensky. Compiled by I. Bochkareva (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden), M. Waxmacher (Belgium, France), E. Witkovsky (Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland), L. Ginzburg (Germany), S. Ilinskaya (Greece) ), T. Melikova (Turkey), E. Ryauzova (Portugal), A. Sergeev (England, Ireland), N. Tomashevsky (Spain, Italy). - Moscow: Publishing house " Fiction", 1977. - Series "Library of World Literature". Series Three. Literature of the XX century. Volume 152. . Download the book: Djv, Pdf.
On the covers of the books Leger Builders were in Soviet years. For example, on the dust jacket of the volume "Western European Poetry of the 20th Century" from the "Library of World Literature". Builders with aloe were considered one of the emblematic compositions of the entire 20th century.
Some other Fernand Léger Builders:
5.
Fernand Leger. "Builders with wood". 1949-1950. Private collection. Christie's, 2014, 2015 / Christie's, 2014. Lot 28 is a good example of the "Builders" series by Fernand Léger (1881-1955). An oil on canvas entitled "Les Constructeurs avec Arbre," it measures 42 5/8 by 54 1/8 inches and was painted in 1950. It was once in the collections of Nathan Cummings of New York and Stephen A. Wynn of Las Vegas and it has been exhibited and published widely. Other major examples in this series are at the Musée national Fernand Léger in Biot, France, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art in Moscow. It has an estimate of $16,000,000 to $22,000,000. It was passed at $15.5 million. via
From the Find N-differences series. It may seem that in Fig. 5 - a picture from the Pushkin Museum, but no - different. This one was exhibited at Christie's: auction "Artist's Muse", November 9, 2015. Estimated $12-18 million. The canvas was withdrawn from sale at Christie's in 2014, the second attempt to sell it, in 2015, was also unsuccessful - it was not sold. In 2014, the estimate of the work ranged from $16 million to $22 million, and dealers rated it as too high. Despite lowering the estimate and Christie's attempts to emphasize the historical importance of the work - the catalog says that this picture symbolizes Léger's connection with communist ideology, marketers failed again.
6.
Builders with Rope (Les constructeurs au cordage). 1950. Fernand Léger (1881, Argentan, France; d. 1955, Gif-sur-Yvette, France). oil on canvas. 161.3 x 114 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
"During the years he lived in Gif-sur-Yvette, Léger often painted landscapes, and the daily road to Paris ran in front of him, behind him, along with him fell into the studio, so that he could remain cheerfully and loudly on the canvas.<...>
It was on this road that Léger had the idea for The Builders, one of his most important landmark works. “Near the road,” he explained, “three towers of high voltage lines were being built. Working people piled up on them.” This simple fact was revealed to the artist as an opportunity for the pictorial embodiment of his life emotions and aesthetic principles.
“I would advise young artists to visit construction sites in order to feel the rhythms and plasticity of our time. And see in the worker, in the builder of the owner. Tomorrow's paradise is a factory, beautiful as a palace, and a worker in it, like a Prince Charming, ”he said. "
[Dubenskaya Lyubov Alexandrovna. Narrated by Nadia Leger. - M .: Children's literature, 1978. - 50,000 copies. Page 204]
7.
Fernand Leger. Etude pour "Les Constructeurs": l "équipe au repos. 1950. Oil on canvas. 62.00 x 129.50 cm (framed: 183.00 x 152.20 x 9.00 cm). Accession number: GMA 2845. Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art. National Galleries of Scotland.
In 1950 Léger made a series of paintings depicting construction workers. Although he had been interested in depicting modernity for some time, he was particularly inspired by the post-war process of reconstruction in France. He saw a group of electricians working on pylons and was struck by the contrast between the natural surroundings and the metallic girders. After joining the French Communist Party in 1945, Léger concentrated on the human figure, as he wanted to make his work accessible to everyone. Eager that his art should be seen by ordinary workers, he exhibited the series of "Constructors" paintings in the canteen of the Renault car factory in Paris.
8.
Detail from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art / Fernand Léger. Etude pour "Les Constructeurs": l "équipe au repos. 1950. Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art. National Galleries of Scotland.
9.
Les Constructeurs. 1950 Fernand Leger. Huile sur toile, 300 x 228 cm. Donation Nadia Léger et Georges Bauquier, 1969. Inv. MNFL 94001. Musées nationaux des Alpes Maritimes. Le Musée National Fernand Leger. / Dernières fixations
