Updated 04 April 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Red Cock and Blue Sky
| Date | 1953 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
| Size（cm） | 65.3 x 92 |
| Inscriptions | Signed and dated lower right: 53 / F. LEGER |
| Credit Line | Donated by Yamamura Family |
| Standard ref. | Bauquier 1572 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1965-0010 |
After World War Ⅰ, Léger's art balanced opposing, or seemingly opposing, realities on the same picture plane. For example, this concept can be clearly seen in Mona Lisa with Key (Musée national Fernand Léger, Biot). Léger called such a tension-filled balance in painting "contrast," but he also expanded it from a particular artistic sense into a cosmic and universal sense. His works seem to depict an ideal, dreamlike world that harmonizes modern industrialized civilization with the artless life of mankind. In the midst of the intelligentsia's general dread of the future of mankind with its increasingly high level of mechanization, Léger was the only artist who beheld the possibility of mankind successfully living in such a world. When Apollinaire commented in 1913 that "he [Léger] resists mankind's ancient skills and folk crafts and is the first artist to happily specialize in the skills of his own contemporary world," the poet was foreshadowing Léger's true character. In Red Cock and Blue Sky, one of his late works created after he returned to France from America where he had escaped the ravages of war, the birth of his concept of contrast is evident in the combination of blue sky, red rooster, and the fragment of a machine. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.119)
Provenance
Atelier Fernand Leger, no. 301; Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (inv. 05226-14490/6834); Saidenberg Gallery, New York; Donated by Haru & Tokutaro Yamamura, Nishinomiya.
Exhibition History
- 1954
- Fernand Leger: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, Ceramics, Marlborough Fine Art, London, 0 December 1954 - 0 January 1955, cat. no. 46.
- 1988
- Perspective of 20th Century Paintings, Nagoya City Art Museum, 23 April 1988 - 19 June 1988, cat. no. 55, col. repr.
- 1989
- The French Modern Painting, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Miyakonojo City Museum, 15 April 1989 - 14 May 1989, cat. no. 28, col. repr.
- 1994
- Fernand Léger, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 9 April 1994 - 29 May 1994, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, 25 June-30 July; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 5 Aug.-11 Sep.; The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, 17 Sep.-3 Nov., cat. no. 68, col. repr.
- 1997
- Expressiveness of Materials, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 17 April 1997 - 22 June 1997, cat. no. 64
- 2006
- The poet's eyes: Makoto Ooka and his collection, Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, 3 November 2006 - 10 December 2006, Ashikaga Museum of Art, Tochigi, 10 February-25 March 2007, col. repr.
Bibliography
- 1967
- Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 1, 1967, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions. pp. 42-43, no. P-352. repr.
- 1971
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 37, repr.
- 1975
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 82, repr.
- 1979
- The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 154, repr.
- 1988
- Perspective of 20th Century Paintings: Inaugural Exhibition (exh. cat.). Nagoya City Art Museum, ed. [Nagoya], Nagoya City Art Museum, 1988, pp. 102-103, 323, cat. no. 55, col. repr.
- 1992
- The French Modern Art, from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, ed. Okinawa, Urasoe Art Museum, 1992, p.44, cat. no. 34, col. repr
- 1994
- Fernand Léger (exh. cat.). Tokyo Shimbun, ed. [Tokyo], Tokyo Shimbun. 1994, p. 148, no. 68, col. repr.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 119, col. repr.
- 2006
- The poet's eyes: Makoto Ooka and his Collection(exh.cat.). Mitaka City Gallery of Art. et al., eds. [Tokyo], The Asahi Shimbun, 2006, p.140, col. repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 119, col. repr.
- 2013
- Bauquier, Georges. Fernand Léger: catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. [Paris], Irus et Vincent Hansma, 2013, pp. 178-79, no. 1572, col. repr.