Leger, Fernand – “Paravent”. Original lithograph published in 1958 by Maeght, Paris. From Derriere Le Miroir.

Fernand Léger, (1881 – 1955), was a French painter who was deeply influenced by modern industrial technology and Cubism. He developed “machine art,” a style characterized by monumental mechanistic forms rendered in bold colours.

Initially beginning with a style mixing Impressionism with Fauvism he moved to a more Cubist approach and developed his theory that

the way to achieve the strongest pictorial effect was to juxtapose contrasts of colour, of curved and straight lines, and of solids and flat planes.

Léger also experimented with other media such as film, set design and stained glass windows. Few 20th-century artists accepted the Industrial Revolution with as much enthusiasm as Léger displayed during his career.