Fernand Léger
The Blue Disc
1919
Scroll
Fernand Léger
The Blue Disc
1919
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Overall: 22 x 18 1/2 in. (55.9 x 47 cm.)
Framed: 31 3/8 x 28 x 1 1/4 in. (79.7 x 71.1 x 3.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman Collection
Object Number
1963.16.9
Léger was fascinated by modernity, especially the changes in human sensibility brought about by the machine age. In explaining how increased speed of travel has impacted our way of seeing, Léger observed: “If pictorial expression has changed, it is because modern life has necessitated it...the thing that is imagined is less fixed, the object exposes itself less than it did formerly. When one crosses a landscape by automobile or express train, it becomes fragmented; it loses its descriptive value but gains in synthetic value.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1963; Nelson and Juanita Greif Gutman Collection; Mrs. Nelson Gutman by purchase, 1953; from Perls Galleries, New York, by purchase; from Georges Schick, Paris, by purchase; from the artist
Perls Galleries, "Fernand Leger", October 27-November 29, 1952, no. 5, ill. p. 5.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings & Sculpture", July 9-September 23, 1969.
Helen Molesworth and Katy Rothkopf, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "European Abstraction from the Collection 1912-1948", February 28-December 2, 2001.
Darsie Alexander, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Mechanical Form / Mechanical Vision", December 12, 2001-April 7, 2002.
Anna Vallye, Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis", October 14, 2013-January 5, 2014.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings & Sculpture", July 9-September 23, 1969.
Helen Molesworth and Katy Rothkopf, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "European Abstraction from the Collection 1912-1948", February 28-December 2, 2001.
Darsie Alexander, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Mechanical Form / Mechanical Vision", December 12, 2001-April 7, 2002.
Anna Vallye, Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis", October 14, 2013-January 5, 2014.
'La Chronique Des Arts,' extrait de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts,' no. 1153, February 1965, p. 87 (published as "Le Disque blue).
Anna Vallye, Editor, "Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis," (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2013, p. 189, color ill. (published as "The Blue Disk").
Inscribed: Recto: LR, "F. Leger/20" Verso: "Le Disque Bleu/Fetat/F. Leger 20"
