Le Village dans la forêt (The Village in the Forest)

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Fernand Léger

French, 1881-1955

Le Village dans la forêt (The Village in the Forest), 1914

oil on burlap

support: 29 1/8 x 36 5/8 inches (73.98 x 93.03 cm); framed: 40 x 47 1/8 x 2 7/8 inches (101.6 x 119.7 x 7.3 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Gift of A. Conger Goodyear, 1960

1960:4

More Details

Inscriptions

inscription / back of fabric / Paysage No.1

signature, undated / back of fabric / F. Léger

Provenance

D. H. Kahnweiler, Paris (?);
Léonce Rosenberg, Paris, until 1932;
to A. Conger Goodyear, New York;
presented by Goodyear to the Albright Art Gallery, 1960

Class

Paintings

Work Type

Oil painting

Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms

Fernand Léger first met Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1910 and eventually embraced his own interpretation of Cubism. The influence of Picasso and Braque’s work, as well as that of Paul Cézanne, can be seen in The Village in the Forest. Here, the sharp, angular planes of the houses and rounded contours of the treetops and their trunks are simplified rather than broken down and analyzed. These elements are further defined by black outlines and bright colors. Léger painted this work just prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Following the artist’s return from his service in the army, his pictorial interests and themes changed significantly.

Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017