La table dans le jardin 1954

Fernand Léger made this painting of a table in the garden with oil on canvas. Look at the way Léger laid down the color—each block carefully considered and separated by dark outlines. You can feel the hand of the artist working out the balance between representation and abstraction. The red rectangle at the top left is echoed and inverted by a blue patch near the top right—as if he’s calibrating something as he goes. I imagine him in his studio, stepping back, squinting, adjusting… He’s not just copying a scene. He’s translating it, turning observation into something more solid and lasting. And what about the way he applied the paint? It’s clean and flat, matter-of-fact. It’s not about texture or brushwork—it’s about pure, unadulterated color. It's almost as though he's in conversation with the Fauves, but with a more modern, machine-age sensibility. Artists like Léger show us that painting isn’t just about what we see, but how we see. Each gesture, each choice of color, is an opportunity to explore the world and our place in it.