Fernand Léger
Study for “Acrobats and Musicians”
1939
Scroll
Fernand Léger
Study for “Acrobats and Musicians”
1939
Physical Qualities
Opaque and transparent watercolor with pen and black ink over graphite, squared for transfer, Sheet: 1011 x 1347 mm. (39 13/16 x 53 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.324
The subject of this densely packed watercolor is the parade de cirque, an outdoor sideshow of acrobats and musicians. Their performance was
intended to draw the public indoors to witness the main spectacle.
What precise purpose Study for ‘Acrobats and Musicians’ served in Léger’s artistic process remains unclear. It is a working drawing that has marks indicating that it was squared for transfer (a common technique for replicating or enlarging a composition). The only known painting it relates to, however, is the slightly larger Acrobats and Musicians, 1945, at the Sofia Imber Museum of Modern Art, Caracas. This is a mirror-reversed version of the seven-figure composition in the watercolor. Since transferring a work by squares does not result in reversal, the relation of the two works to each other
is unclear. Léger returned to this theme on a monumental mural scale in 1954
with his La Grande Parade, état definitif (The Great Parade, Final State) at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
BMA, "Master Drawings and Watercolors of the 19th and 20th Centuries from the Museum Collection," 14 October - 28 November, 1982.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Oliver Shell, BMA, "A Circus Family: Picasso to Léger," 22 February through 17 May 2009.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Oliver Shell, BMA, "A Circus Family: Picasso to Léger," 22 February through 17 May 2009.
Inscribed: lower right in black ink: "etude pour 'les saltimbanques'" / F.LEGER 39"
