Les deux sœurs 1932

Fernand Léger painted “Les deux soeurs” with what looks like some very deliberate strokes and a palette of ochre, blue, and green, imagining what it might have been like to put myself in his shoes while looking at this painting. I can see that the figures are outlined with a thick, dark contour and filled in with slightly modulated color. Look at that strange plant stem held by the figure in front. Léger is so intent on geometry here that even the leaves become a series of cylinders. It seems like he is using industrial forms to convey a humanist message. The flowers on the table look like an afterthought! The two sisters look so solid, so present. But then the more you look, the weirder the painting gets: those plant-lips, that blue amphora-man… He reminds me of Picasso, but with a more optimistic outlook. Artists are always borrowing ideas from each other, remixing them, and making something new. It’s a conversation that’s been going on for centuries!