Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner)

Fernand Léger

1920

Oil on canvas

Dallas Museum of Art

The monumental bodies of Three Women and Still Life (Déjeuner) are composed of sleek gray cones, planes, and cylinders. They resemble both machined metal forms and the smooth marble limbs of classical sculpture. Fernand Léger painted this work during a part of his career that he called “the monumental period, the massive phase, the compositions with large fi gures, the enlargement of the details.” The painting is dominated by three human bodies. One is a reclining nude, a type of modern odalisque, while the others stand at center, one fi gure clothed in bright colors and the other nude. The fi gures surround and partially conceal a