Paysage Animee (Primary Title)

Fernand Léger, French, 1881 - 1955 (Artist)

1921
French
oil on canvas
Unframed: 36 1/4 × 25 5/8 in. (92.08 × 65.09 cm)
Framed: 44 1/4 × 33 1/2 in. (112.4 × 85.09 cm)
L.44.88.5
Fascinated by machines and automation, Léger gained a reputation as the quintessential painter of modern, mass-produced forms. Even when painting more traditional subject matter, including humans, he imbued the figures with a uniform, mechanical quality. In Animated Landscape, he reduced the figures in the foreground to a series of cylindrical and round volumetric forms, similar in shape and color to the hills and smoke in the background. In contrast, he represented the architectural elements through a flattened, geometric repetition of hard-edged shapes, with the black and red areas providing balance to the composition as a whole.
Lent Anonymously

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