Woman with a Mirror

1929

Fernand Léger

Artist, French, 1881 - 1955

Shown from the hips up, a person with flint blue-colored skin sits in front of geometric shapes filled with flat color in this stylized, vertical painting. The woman’s hair lies across the top of her head, and she has almond-shaped eyes, a long, straight, wide nose, and her thin lips are closed. Her face and shoulders square toward us, and she holds the handle of an oval mirror so the red back side faces us over one bare breast. The surface of her skin is shaded dark around the edges so the curves appear polished or even metallic. White and gray material, presumably fabric, bunches in her lap. Her torso is framed by a slightly irregular tall white rectangle outlined in white. The upper left corner and the bottom zone of the background are canary yellow and the other areas black. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “F. LEGER. 29.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 92.4 x 60 cm (36 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
    framed: 127.3 x 95.9 x 8.2 cm (50 1/8 x 37 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.159

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Paul Rosenberg and Co., London and New York); sold 1930 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1931

  • Exhibition of Modern French Painting, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1931, no. 58.

  • Living Artists, The Pennsylania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1931, unnumbered checklist in The Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin XXVII, no 145 (January 1932): 69.

  • Picasso, Braque, Léger, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 16.

1943

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, 1943-1952 (extended loan), unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1952

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952, no. 31, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1943

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1943:, 29, repro.

1952

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1952 (2nd ed., 1960; rev. ed., 1965): 31, repro.

1960

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1960 (2nd ed.): 33, repro.

1965

  • Twentieth Century French Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965 (rev. ed.): 37, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 74.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 64, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 190, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 223, repro.

1990

  • Bauquier, Georges. Fernand Léger, catalogue raisonné. 10 vols. Paris, 1990-2013: 4(1995):116-117, no. 670, repro.

1998

  • Shefer, Elaine. "Mirror/Reflection." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:608.

Inscriptions

lower right: F.LEGER.29

Wikidata ID

Q20192809

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