Still life 1914

Fernand Léger made this still life painting with oil on canvas sometime in the early 20th century. There are lots of objects stacked on top of each other, rendered in blocky shapes and a muted color palette. Imagine him, Léger, moving the paint around, trying to find the forms, maybe not knowing exactly what he was looking for. I love the raw quality, the exposed canvas that allows the colors to breathe. There is a boxy yellow form in the background that looks like it might be the edge of a building. I am drawn to the cylindrical forms in greens and reds - maybe they are tins or pots, but who knows? The dark outlines are like the lead lines in stained glass. These objects appear to be in motion, as if the painting is in the process of becoming itself, which reminds me of Picasso and Braque, who were his contemporaries, and how they used to paint. I can imagine Léger looking at their work and thinking about how to push his own painting practice further. So many conversations happening on canvas!