Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger was married twice. His first marriage was in 1919 to Jeanne-Augustine Lohy. His wife died in 1950. A couple of years later he tied the knot again with Nadia Khodossevitch.

He died on August 17, 1955, in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

In 1960, the Musée Fernand Léger was opened in Biot, Alpes-Maritimes, France.

Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was born to a peasant family in the rural town of Argentan, France, on February 4, 1881. His father raised cattle for a living.

On growing up Fernand Léger was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and raise cattle. However, the young Léger was more inclined towards the arts and wanted to pursue a profession where he could unleash his creativity. Initially he aspired to be an architect and trained in this profession from 1897 to 1899 before apprenticing under an architect in Caen. He completed his two-year internship in 1901.

He then served for a year during 1902-03 in military service in Versailles, Yvelines following which he furthered his education by studying at the Académie Julian. During this time he also attended the École des Beaux-Arts as a non-enrolled student.

Eventually Fernand Léger realized that architecture was not his true interest and ventured into a career as an artist. He attended a retrospective of Paul Cézanne’s work at the Paris Salon d’Automne of 1907 and was thoroughly impressed.

He rented a studio at La Ruche (“The Beehive”), an artists’ settlement on the edge of Montparnasse, in 1908. During this period he met leaders of the avant-garde such as Archipenko, Lipchitz, Chagall, Joseph Csaky and Robert Delaunay who cast a deep influence on the young artist. His new friends also kindled his interest in Cubism, a movement that had been created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1907.

Fernand Léger developed his own style of Cubism, which became known as “Tubism”. In 1909, he created ‘The Seamstress’, in which he rendered the human body as a mass of slabs and cylinders that resembled a robot.

In 1910, he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne along with fellow artists Jean Metzinger and Henri Le Fauconnier. The following year, the hanging committee of the Salon des Indépendants named him a part of a group of painters known as “Cubists” who were made responsible for revealing Cubism to the general public.

When the World War I broke out, he fought as a sapper (military engineer) at the front lines. He was gassed at the Battle of Verdun and was hospitalized for a long period before being finally released from the army in 1917.

As a painter, Fernand Léger is best known for developing his own style of Cubism which became known as “Tubism”. This style emphasized cylindrical shapes and is best depicted in paintings such as ‘Nudes in the Forest’ (1909-10) and ‘The Card Players’ (1917). He also played a significant role in influencing the Modernism movement.