Soldier with a pipe 1916

Fernand Léger made this painting of a Soldier with a pipe, in oil, and it looks like he's working through some ideas about how to flatten forms, make them geometric, in a limited palette. I love how the silvery greys create a kind of metallic feel, while the touches of red, maybe on the soldier's helmet, offer these little jolts of warmth. It’s like he's building up the soldier from cylinders and spheres, almost like machine parts. Look at that pipe he's holding; it’s so simplified, it's more like a symbol of a pipe than a realistic depiction. You can see the texture of the canvas coming through the paint, which adds a certain roughness to the image. Léger’s interest in everyday objects and the urban environment, feels like a precursor to some Pop Art ideas, but it's also got the analytical eye of Cubism. There's something very human in the way he renders the figure. For me, it's less about capturing a likeness and more about exploring the essence of form.