La Gare de Verdun 1915 - 1916

Fernand Léger made this drawing of The Train Station in Verdun with what looks like ink on paper. It's all in blacks and creams, a world rendered through sharp angular strokes. I imagine Léger's eye darting across the scene before him, train station, a jumble of shapes and signs, trying to capture not just what he sees but the feeling of the place. He's simplifying everything into basic forms, squares, circles, lines. He's not trying to trick us into seeing reality, but rather to show us how he understands it. His lines are not delicate, they are bold, like he’s trying to pin down something wild and unruly. It's like a visual shorthand, capturing the essence of the station with only what's absolutely necessary. Léger, like other cubists, was trying to find new ways of seeing. He wasn't interested in replicating the world. He was interested in building it, from scratch, with a fresh eye. It reminds me to look at everything as though for the first time.