La Femme au Miroir. Woman with a Mirror. by Fernand Leger, 1881-1955

Fernand Leger, 1881-1955
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La Femme au Miroir. Woman with a Mirror.

Original lithograph in black ink. 1920. Signed with initials and dated in the stone (no pencil signed impressions are known). Commissioned by Gustave Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1920, and issued for the review: Das Kunstblatt, 1920. Printer's studio not known. Edition size
unknown; very many impressions lost or destroyed; now rare.
Ref: Saphire - Leger Graphic Work no 1.

Very fine strong dark impression. On the characteristic light cream quite poor quality wove paper used for the review. Excellent condition, especially for a work of this type. Printed virtually to the full sheet size. Sheet: 10 3/4 x 8ins. Image: 9 1/2 x 7 3/4ins (240x195mm)

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An excellent impression of Leger?s rare first lithograph.

?La Femme au Miroir? was the first lithograph in Leger?s graphic oeuvre. It was commissioned from him by Paul Westheim, the avant-garde publisher and dealer in 1919 or 20. It was drawn in Paris but actually issued in Potsdam-Berlin. No impressions have ever been discovered either pencil signed or on paper larger than that used for the review ?Das Kunstblatt - The Art Paper? - in which it was issued. Although quite a large edition when issued (? 1000 impressions) very few examples seem to have survived and it is now very uncommon indeed.

The theme of the lithograph is one of the most important in Leger?s early work. Some four paintings are known with the same title of ?Woman with a Mirror? all dating from the same year as this composition, but as Saphire has indicated in his book the treatment of the central woman in this lthograph suggests that it slightly predates the paintings. At this date Leger was making an important step forward from his earlier pure cubist compositions which are largely static, and seeking to describe movement within space. The background framework for the figure is broken up into a virtually abstract pattern of shapes which create the spatial context. The figure is then described in the act of holding out the mirror, the stages of the movement expressed through the repetition of the mirror and arm shapes.