Composition in Blue

1921/27

Fernand Léger
French, 1881–1955

Status: On View, Gallery 393
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Fernand Léger
Title: Composition in Blue
Place: France (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1921–1927
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, l.r.: Leger 21-27
Dimensions: 130.5 × 97.2 cm (51 3/8 × 38 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1937.461
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

E. Tériade, Fernand Léger (Paris: Cahiers d’Art, 1928), pl. 63, as Composition en bleu.
Arts Club of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Modern Paintings Privately Owned by Chicagoans, exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1929), n. p., cat. 66, as Composition en bleu.
C. J. Bulliet, “Art’s Club Show is Going Visiting,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World (January 15, 1929), p. 3 (ill.), as Composition en bleu.
Waldemar George, “Fernand Léger,” The Arts 15, 5 (1929), p. 311 (ill.), as Composition in Blue, 1927.
Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Retrospective, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1930), p. 6, cat. 59, as Composition in Blue.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 84, cat. 781, as Composition in Blue.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “The Rearrangement of the Painting Galleries,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 7 (1933), p. 117.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Report for the Year 1937 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1937), p. 45.
Daniel Catton Rich, Catalogue of the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection of Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1938), pp. X, 82, no. 89, pl. L, as Composition in Blue.
Toledo Museum of Art, Contemporary Movements in European Painting, exh. cat. (Toledo, Ohio: Toledo Museum of Art, 1938), n. p., cat. 57 (ill.).
Willi Baumeister, “Fernand Léger,” L’Age Nouveau 42 (October 1949), n. p., fig. 7, as Epoque Mécanique, 1925.
“To Dedicate Art at New Building,” The Lawrentian (May 26, 1950), p. 4, as Composition in Blue.
Katharine Kuh, Fernand Léger, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1953), p. 86, cat. 36, as Composition in Blue.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 257, as Composition in Blue, 21–27.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Comments on Selected Paintings in the Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), p. 39, as Composition in Blue, 1921–1927.
A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Paintings (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 51, no. 2D11, as Composition in Blue, 1921–27.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Fernand Léger, exh. cat. (Cologne: Galerie Gmurzynska, 1985), p. 40, as Eléments mécaniques, 1927.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Fernand Léger Schlüsselwerke, exh. cat. (Cologne: Galerie Gmurzynska, 1990), p. 54, as Eléments mécaniques, 1927.
Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger: Catalogue raisonné 1925–1928 (Paris: Adrien Maeght, 1993), pp. 216–217, no. 518 (ill.), as Composition en bleu, 1927.
Carolyn Lanchner, “Fernand Léger: American Connections,” in Carolyn Lanchner, Fernand Léger, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1998), p. 68, n. 203, as Composition in Blue.

Chicago, Arts Club, Loan Exhibition of Modern Paintings Privately Owned by Chicagoans, January 4–18, 1929, n. p., cat. 66.
Chicago, Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Exhibition of Modern European and of Antique Oriental Art Loaned by Members of the Renaissance Society, April 7–21, 1930, cat. 62, as Abstract.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Retrospective, June –September 1930, p. 6 (cat. 59), as Composition in Blue.
Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, November 1931.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933, p. 84, cat. 781.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Fernand Léger, December 19, 1935–January 19, 1936, not in cat (organized by the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago).
Toledo Museum of Art, Contemporary Movements in European Painting, November 6–December 11, 1938, n. p., cat. 57 (ill.)
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, The Winterbotham Collection of 20th Century European Paintings, October 8–November 6, 1949, no cat.
Milwaukee Art Institute, Exhibition in Connection with Exhibition of Industrial Designs by Brooks Stevens, January 10–February 19, 1950, no cat.
Appleton Wis., Worcester Art Center, Lawrence College, A Loan Exhibition of Old and Modern Masters of the Worcester Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago, June 1–12, 1950, no cat.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fernand Léger, April 2–May 17, 1953, p. 86, cat. 36; traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Art, June 12–August 30, 1953, and New York, Museum of Modern Art, October 21, 1953–January 3, 1954.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.

The artist; Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, 1928 [letters from Charles H. Worcester, Sept. 21, 1928 and John Storrs, Sept. 11, 1928 and Oct. 26, 1928, in the curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1937.

36 Fernand Léger, Composition in Blue, 1921–27

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