Chimneys on Rooftops 1911

Fernand Léger’s ‘Chimneys on Rooftops’ is an oil on canvas where you can almost smell the smoke in the air. The painting’s colour palette is all muted greys, tans, and creams, but these colours don’t flatten the image. Instead, they create depth, and give each shape volume. Up close, the painting is a series of chunky, deliberate marks. Léger uses thick paint applied with real force, and there’s a clear sense of direction to each brushstroke. Look at the grey roofs in the lower half of the painting; each one is built up of layers, like he’s sculpting the scene. The colours may be subdued, but the physicality is intense. There’s a ghost of Cézanne here, in the way Léger reduces the world to its basic volumes, but it’s fair to say he takes it even further. It’s almost as if the painting is on the verge of total abstraction, a collection of geometric shapes with only a hint of representation. But that tension, between abstraction and figuration, is what makes it so interesting.