Provenance
Unknown art dealer, Paris [Munich 1965]. Sold by Richard Zinser, New York, to Walter Bareiss, Greenwich, Conn., 1950s-at least 1968 [date of acquisition according to a letter from Walter Bareiss dated Mar. 19, 2003; New York 1968]. Sold by Stefan Lennert Ltd. to Dr. and Mrs. Martin Gecht, 1988; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015.
Accession Number
180673
Medium
Graphite on grayish-tan wove paper
Dimensions
38 × 30.7 cm (15 × 12 1/8 in.)
Classification
graphite
Credit Line
Gift of the Gecht Family
Background & Context
Background Story
Fernand Léger's "Still Life on Round Table" (1920) is a graphite drawing on grayish-tan wove paper that brings Léger's machine-age aesthetic to the traditional genre of still life. The subject—objects arranged on a round table—was a classic still life motif that had been painted for centuries, but Léger's treatment is unmistakably modern. The objects are reduced to geometric forms: cylinders, spheres, flat planes, and arcs that describe the shapes of bottles, glasses, fruits, or other tabletop objects. The round table itself becomes a strong oval or circle in the composition. The graphite technique is precise and controlled, the forms defined with clear, confident lines. The grayish-tan paper provides a neutral ground. This drawing belongs to the period when Léger was developing the "mechanical" style that would make him famous, a style that found beauty in the forms of the modern industrial world and applied them to every subject, from still life to the human figure.
Cultural Impact
Léger's still lifes demonstrate the universal application of his machine-age aesthetic, showing that even the most traditional subject could be revitalized through the vocabulary of modern form.
Why It Matters
This graphite still life transforms a traditional tabletop arrangement into a composition of geometric forms, the cylinders and planes creating a machine-age vision of the most ordinary objects.
