Paysage à l’arbre bleu 1937

Fernand Léger painted "Paysage à l’arbre bleu" using oil on canvas. The painting has a blue tree that dominates the foreground. Léger was a veteran of the First World War. After the war he became interested in the relationship between art and the modern industrial world. The cultural shift can be felt in the abstracted shapes, which reference the machinery that defined that world. Léger wasn't alone in this pursuit. Many artists in France embraced a style known as "Purism" which sought to synthesize Cubism with a renewed interest in clarity and order. Léger’s painting shares Purism's reductive quality, but the simplified forms also have much in common with folk art. The colors are also evocative of commercial art. The role of the art historian is to consider the artist, the institutions, and the social world that influenced this painting. By researching Léger and French art of this time, we can understand how it reflects the changing landscape of art and society in France.