Compositional Study for Man with a Pipe

Fernand Léger

1920

India ink and gray wash over graphite on paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In his art Léger focuses on the mechanization of the world in the wake of World War I. He juxtaposes the human body with the forms and shapes of modern, industrial imagery, creating compositions that thrive on the cold and calculating precision of pure geometry and Cubist abstraction. In this preparatory study for the painting Man with a Pipe from 1920, Léger fashions figures out of machine parts and turns a café into a tight composition of circles and lines. Details such as the stairs and railing at the right, the table and bench at the lower left, and the puffs of smoke from the man's pipe, are subordinated to the overall sense of