Oil paint on canvas
Tate Modern
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/fernand-leger-1488" aria-label="More by Fernand Léger" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Fernand Léger</a>
Leaves and Shell
Purchased 1949
abstraction
animals: features
geometric
leaf
non-representational
plants and flowers
shell
<p>Léger’s paintings often celebrate machine-made objects and modern city life. But in the late 1920s he began to include natural forms in his work. The curving line down the left-hand side of the painting softens the underlying geometric structure of horizontal and vertical lines. It also acts as a link to the organic shapes of leaves and a shell. These naturalistic elements, with their streamlined shapes, are closely connected to the abstract parts of the image.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 May 2000 – 30 October 2005
2005-10-30
12 May 2000 – 30 October 2005
2005-10-30
2000-05-12
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2000-05-12
Modern Life
Collection based display
1 May 2006 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
1 May 2006 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
2006-05-01
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2006-05-01
States of Flux
Collection based display
23 November 2015
23 November 2015
2015-11-23
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2015-11-23
Abstraction and Society
Collection based display
23 November 2018 – 14 September 2019
2019-09-14
23 November 2018 – 17 March 2019
2019-03-17
2018-11-23
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2018-11-23
Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures
Exhibition
Leaves and Shell
support: 1295 × 972 mm
frame: 1350 × 1019 × 60 mm
Purchased 1949
<div class="text">
<p>Léger’s paintings often celebrate machine-made objects and modern city life. But in the late 1920s he began to include natural forms in his work. The curving line down the left-hand side of the painting softens the underlying geometric structure of horizontal and vertical lines. It also acts as a link to the organic shapes of leaves and a shell. These naturalistic elements, with their streamlined shapes, are closely connected to the abstract parts of the image.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-08-27T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Fernand Léger</b><span> 1881-1955 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/leger-leaves-and-shell-n05907" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05907</span></a> </span><b>Feuilles et Coquillage</b><span>
(Leaves and Shell) 1927 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'F. LÉGER. 27' b.r. and 'feuilles et coquillage | F. LÉGER 27' on back of canvas</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 51 x 38 1/4 (129.5 x 97)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the artist (Benson Fund) 1949</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Calder, Léger, Bodmer, Leuppi</i><span>, Kunsthalle, Bern, May 1947 (56); </span><i>Alexander Calder + Fernand Léger</i><span>, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, July-August 1947 (60); </span><i>Fernand Léger: Exposition Rétrospective 1905-49</i><span>, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, October-November 1949 (52); </span><i>Fernand Léger</i><span>, Tate Gallery, February-March 1950 (28, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
John Rothenstein, </span><i>The Tate Gallery</i><span>
(London 1966), p.258 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>This seems to be the final and largest version of this theme. There are two other versions in oils of which the first was probably one 92 x 73cm (Léonce Rosenberg photo no.1092) which has a dedication to Léonce Rosenberg, 'amicalement à Léonce Rosenberg', just above the signature. It is very similar in general appearance and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/proportion" title="Glossary definition for 'Proportion'"><span>proportions</span></a>, but lacks the undulating colour band down the left-hand side and has various other minor differences. A smaller <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still life</span></a> which passed through the Galerie Simon (No.10261) and which is reproduced in </span><i>Der Querschnitt</i><span>, VIII, 1928, facing p.40, seems to represent an intermediate stage. It measures 65 x 54cm and is rather squarer in format than the other two, but it includes the curved-edged band of colour down the left-hand side and is generally closer in detail to the Tate's picture. (For instance, the forms of the two upper leaves are more or less the same, the leaf immediately below touches the dark vertical line instead of not quite meeting it, and so on). Both these other versions have three coloured discs in the dark striped area and a dark coloured disc in the bottom right-hand corner. The final picture also had a coloured disc in the bottom corner at some stage, but it was afterwards painted out and the green triangle and the smaller disc more to the left were added instead. Both the other versions are also dated 1927. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.418-9, reproduced p.418 </span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction animals: features geometric leaf non-representational plants and flowers shell