La Lecture (The Reading)
1922
A monumental Cubist figurative composition depicting a reclining female figure holding a book, rendered in Léger's signature tubular, mechanomorphic style. The figure is set against a dynamic background of blue-and-white checkerboard patterns, geometric stripes, and bold yellow forms, showcasing Léger's synthesis of Cubism and industrial aesthetics. The work exemplifies his 'aesthetic of the machine' period of the early 1920s, where human forms are reduced to cylindrical, sculptural volumes with flattened tonal modeling. Signed and dated lower right 'FLEGER 22,' this is a seminal example of Léger's mature figurative style bridging Cubism and Purism.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Signed
- Yes
- Location
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Notes
Signature reads 'FLEGER 22' in the lower right corner of the canvas. The year '22' indicates 1922. The title 'La Lecture' is a well-documented Léger composition from this period; visual evidence strongly supports this identification. The painting is housed in a substantial black molded frame.
Est. Current Value
Spotted works by Fernand Léger
Artists in conversation
Albert Gleizes
French · b. 1881
Gleizes worked in a closely related post-Cubist idiom featuring bold geometric fragmentation, strong black outlines, and flattened figurative forms set against rhythmic geometric backgrounds. His figurative compositions from the same era share Léger's machine age sensibility and the use of interlocking planes of vivid color.
Léopold Survage
French · b. 1879
Survage painted stylized reclining and standing female figures in a post-Cubist manner with bold cylindrical and tubular forms, strong outlines, and warm ochre and blue color contrasts that closely parallel Léger's tubist figurative works of the early 1920s. His figures inhabit similarly geometric decorative backgrounds with checkerboard and diamond patterning.
Jean Metzinger
French · b. 1883
Metzinger produced figurative Cubist canvases featuring rounded simplified female forms rendered with bold contour lines against geometric patterned backgrounds, sharing Léger's synthesis of the human figure with an architectural and industrial visual vocabulary. His palette of warm yellows against structured blue and white geometric fields closely mirrors the chromatic and compositional logic of this specific work.
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