Tête de comète et tronc d'arbre (recto); Trois études pour un paravent (verso)

Details

Fernand Léger (1881-1955)
Tête de comète et tronc d'arbre (recto); Trois études pour un paravent (verso)
signed, titled, inscribed, dedicated and dated 'tête de comete [sic] et troncs d'arbres a [sic] Sara Murphy très amicalement bamgert 31 Fleger' (lower right; recto)
pencil on paper (recto and verso)
17¼ x 11½ in. (43.5 x 29.4 cm.)
Drawn in 1931

Provenance

Sara Murphy, Nice, to whom given by the artist.
Iolas Jackson Gallery, New York.
Anonymous Sale, Sotheby's New York, 12 May 1994, lot 427.
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner.

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Berggruen & Cie, Fernand Léger, gouaches, aquarelles et desssins, October - November 1996, no. 28 (illustrated).

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The recto and verso studies seen here are related to a series of compositions inspired by the shape of a comet (Bauquier, nos. 745-749), which culminated in a large three-panel screen that Léger painted for the Villa America, the vacation home of the wealthy American expatriates Sara and Gerald Murphy in Cap d'Antibes (B., no. 750). Léger dedicated the present drawing to Sara, perhaps in gratitude for the Murphys' hospitality during his stay during the summer of 1931 in their house in the Austrian Tyrol, where they were joined by Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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