In "Les deux femmes au vase bleu, Women with a Blue Vase", painted at a time when Fernand Léger devoted himself mainly to large formats, he discovered classical subjects and the principles of contrast between forms and colours, which he introduced into his paintings as early as 1910.
Here, the two naked women are juxtaposed with objects. But because we are looking at them, Leger's figures also become objects. No feeling animates these characters who are almost merged with the decoration, the table, the plant, all the objects that are usually found in a still-life. The composition, already balanced by the contrast between these simple forms and colours, is not cluttered by a decorative background or by any superfluous detail. Everything seems perfectly calculated around an axis of symmetry which reinforces the figure-object opposition: on the one hand, the dark colour is laid flat on the figures, on the other, more varied colours are used for the objects.
All the imagery that makes up this picture seems massive, there is no hierarchy of stature or volume, and it imposes itself on the viewer as a whole.
Hair that looks like corrugated iron and flowers that look like tools, why not? The industrial world is for Fernand Leger an inexhaustible source of inspiration! Yet the result is a static world of silence and secrecy. So what is finally the message of this painting? Mystery….
Inventory number: P. 1793 (SPBP 192
In "Les deux femmes au vase bleu, Women with a Blue Vase", painted at a time when Fernand Léger devoted himself mainly to large formats, he discovered classical subjects and the principles of contrast between forms and colours, which he introduced into his paintings as early as 1910.
Here, the two naked women are juxtaposed with objects. But because we are looking at them, Leger's figures also become objects. No feeling animates these characters who are almost merged with the decoration, the table, the plant, all the objects that are usually found in a still-life. The composition, already balanced by the contrast between these simple forms and colours, is not cluttered by a decorative background or by any superfluous detail. Everything seems perfectly calculated around an axis of symmetry which reinforces the figure-object opposition: on the one hand, the dark colour is laid flat on the figures, on the other, more varied colours are used for the objects.
All the imagery that makes up this picture seems massive, there is no hierarchy of stature or volume, and it imposes itself on the viewer as a whole.
Hair that looks like corrugated iron and flowers that look like tools, why not? The industrial world is for Fernand Leger an inexhaustible source of inspiration! Yet the result is a static world of silence and secrecy. So what is finally the message of this painting? Mystery….
Inventory number: P. 1793 (SPBP 192
