Femme Tenant un Vase. Woman Holding a Vase. 1928. by Fernand Leger, 1881-1955

Fernand Leger, 1881-1955
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Femme Tenant un Vase. Woman Holding a Vase. 1928.

Original lithograph in black ink. 1928. Signed in pencil. Inscribed in pencil as 'Epreuve d'essai - Trial impression.' Rare proof, on larger format paper, before the edition of 52 impressions. Drawn and editioned in Paris 1928. Edition issued by Cahiers d'Art, Paris 1928.
Ref: Saphire - Leger The Graphic Work no 13.

Superb trial proof impression. On off-white chine volant paper (this paper was only used for the proofs, not for the edition). Extremely fine condition. Full margins. Sheet: 16 1/4 x 12 1/4ins. Image: 9 1/2 x 6 3/4ins (241x173mm)

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A very rare signed and inscribed trial proof impression of one of Leger?s most important works of the 20?s period in a graphic medium.

The theme of ?Woman Holding a Vase? is one of the most significant statements of Leger?s ideas during his ?Purist? period in the 1920?s. In 1919 Leger joined with Ozenfant and Le Corbusier in forming what they called the ?Purist? group. Leger had been closely involved with the ideas of Cubism since before the First War, but during the years 1914 to 1919 he had been increasingly distancing himself from the use of the arbitrary non thematically-linked cubist pattern of form and plane found in the work of the Synthetic Cubist painters. By 1919 he declared that he wanted to find a purer basis of form on which to build his cubist compositions. This he found in the mechanically produced shapes of the machine age. With Ozenfant and Le Corbusier, he formulated the idea that perfection of shape and surface lay in the ?pure? forms created by machines, forms which were totally without the distortions of intellectual concepts. This concept they called ?Purism?.

Leger created some of his most beautiful works during his Purist period. Femme Tenant un Vase is amongst the most important themes of this phase of his art. He first developed the image around 1920, and then used versions of it in a gouache and two paintings in 1924-27. However one of the most complete and refined version is in the lithograph above. The curve of the vase, the pattern on its surface, the use of the abstract pattern in the background, and the treatment of the woman herself, especially in the shapes of the sections of her arm and the almost robot-like drawing of the hand and fingers, together with the handling of the shading on the elements of the composition so that they appear to have a type of highly glazed non-natural or mechanically created surface, show the abstract perfection of line and the stylised use of form which make Leger?s work of this period so enigmatically compelling.