Léger, Fernand (1921). Le Grand Déjeuner [oil on canvas]. © 2008 ARS, NY/ADGP, Paris. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA. Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund.

This is an example of the kind of modern work that it took me a long time to appreciate. The composition is much too stiff for my tastes, I don’t go for too much color purity, and the nearly-divergent perspective is distracting. However, there is clearly quite a lot of formal activities in this work I am not recognizing. |

The subject of this work is three female forms who seem to be placidly, if not disinterestedly, engaged with the observer. Not only their attention but the rendering of the entire scene seem to reinforce a sense of attention on the viewer. Shape is formatted in a consistent manner: flattened to the picture plane, often with a gradient blending inward. Through shape, pattern is established, repeating or mimicking the rounded forms of the female figures at points in the background. An overall pattern in constructed with geometric, straight-angled shapes too. The color scheme is a primary triad that favors purity and is in some places mixed to create secondaries.

Spatial depth is developed minimally and only to the degree required to support a system of hierarchy, aid in eye movement, and support the tonal pattern embedded in this composition. Viewing the canvas inspires an instinctual sense of homogeneity; objects and space are distributed to near-perfect balance across the surface, resulting a strong sense of static asymmetry. The extreme flattening of elements and use of fractional representation overwhelmingly dominate this work. Beyond that, this work is a study in equivalencies. Living, curved forms dominate the center of the canvas; non-animated, rectilinear forms dominate the outer edges. The value construction of this work is superb, and the ratio of dense to light is nearly equal. 

The only areas treated with deliberate softness are the three women’s faces. Like all elements in this work, they are twisted and forced to respect the picture plane. From one to the another of these three circular figures is where the eye rests first, followed by the smattering of other circular and rounded objects distributed in the background. The viewer seems to be engaged in a comfortable, leisurely activity with the figures (from what I can tell), irrespective of parallax.  

This is an amazing work of art. Constructed in the cubist style, it is the most realistic of that portion of the abstraction scale. It is a more than reasonable distillation of elements and closure figures to carry Léger’s message. This work not only communicates a scene, but a pattern as well.