Fernand LEGER - ROSE ET FIGURE, 1931 Léger is a man of contrasts, the contrasts that always guided his life and his great work. Here, in addition to the fragile and subtle rose in natural color, we have the emblematic face of a woman in a palette of grays, with perfectly regular features, an impassive gaze and straight nose suggestive of ancient Greek statuary. The depiction of face and flower contrasts, as does the background treatment in a uniform yellow color with the sculpted forms of the face and rose petals; a flowing ribbon against the geometric perimeter contributes a final opposition. But Léger is also - and perhaps essentially - a man of deep feeling. Behind Figure is a woman, and under the Rose, a declaration of love. Upon the painter's death in 1955, Pierre Réverdy contributed these fitting words: "In this man, whose great stature suggested great strength, there was a carefully concealed tenderness that can be glimpsed in many works that discretely appear during different periods, all bearing witness to the long, sensitive gaze with which he contemplated our world." Perhaps Léger's dying glance fell on his Rose. *Fernand Léger greatly admired the use of close-ups in La Roue, a film by Abel Gance completed in 1923, and subsequently influenced his research and creation. **Simone Herman, a young, childless divorcee from Anvers, played an exceptional role in Fernand Léger's life between 1930 and 1941. He enjoyed traveling in her company, as she spoke English, a language he new little of, and understood the mores of high society, while he played the role of a bear that only wanted a bit of taming. (Christian Derouet, Léger vu par lui-même, in the catalogue of the exhibit Léger, Japan, 1994, p. 33). ***Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, from the catalogue Fernand Léger, Pompidou, 1997, p. 183. ****La Rose, 1931, oil on canvas, n° 764 in the Catalogue Raisonné by G. Bauquier, the Galerie Louise Leiris collection. LITERATURE: Georges Bauquier, Fernand Léger, Vivre dans le vrai, Adrien Maeght Editeur, Paris, 1987; 29 May - 29 September 1997, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 28 October 1997 - 12 January 1998, Madrid, Museo nacional de arte Reina Sofia, 11 February - 19 May 1998, New York, Moseum of Modern Art, Fernand Léger (Silex et draperies, Les années trente de Fernand Léger par Isabelle Monod-Fontaine). Fig. 1: Parapluie et chapeau melon, 1926, oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fonds A. Conger Goodyear