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Lot 32
Fernand Léger(1881-1955)Composition 12 3/4 x 9 5/8 in (32.2 x 24.1 cm)
14 November 2017, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$22,500 inc. premium
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Fernand Léger (1881-1955)
Composition
signed with initials and dated 'FL 34' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on a sketchbook page
12 3/4 x 9 5/8 in (32.2 x 24.1 cm)
Drawn in 1934
signed with initials and dated 'FL 34' (lower right)
watercolor and pencil on a sketchbook page
12 3/4 x 9 5/8 in (32.2 x 24.1 cm)
Drawn in 1934
Footnotes
Provenance
Gerald and Sara Murphy, New York, as part of a sketchbook of 25 watercolors (a gift from the artist).
Mrs. William Donnelly, daughter of the above.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 1 July 1987, lot 520.
Exhibited
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, and elsewhere, Léger, 20 October 1953-3 January 1954, the album exhibited as no. 123.
In the summer of 1934 Léger joined Sara and Gerald Murphy in Antibes on their yacht Weatherbird. Gerald Murphy recalled the trip:
'During the first day out the sea was smooth and Fernand, who had never been aboard a sailing vessel, was fascinated with the rigging and all the contrivances on board. He had brought a notebook and a few watercolors with him and he spent the entire day making sketches. He had never worked under such conditions and it stimulated him enormously. The second day out the weather turned bad as we encountered Mistral. Very much to his surprise he did not feel the rough sea as he expected and persisted in his work. He made quite a joke of his being able to remain at his post while some of the rest of us were unable to do so. It was for this reason that he wrote on the cover of the notebook, "A Sara et Gerald de leur mousse fidèle [To Sara and Gerald, from their loyal cabin boy]"' (quoted in K. Kuh, Léger, Chicago, 1954, p. 88).