Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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>
Playing Card and Pipe
Presented by Mrs Fanny Wadsworth 1951
abstraction
clothing and personal items
domino
geometric
leaf
non-representational
objects
pipe
plants and flowers
playing card
sports and games
<p>Playing cards and clay pipes had been common elements in Cubist still life paintings of the period circa 1910-14. They introduced a measure of easy legibility, as well as a note of simple domesticity, into these 'difficult' works. In incorporating a playing card and pipe in this painting Léger seems to have been alluding to the earlier avant-garde movement. However, he chose to combine them with types of imagery that were antithetical to Cubism: organic nature (the leaves) and abstraction (the geometric and irregular shapes). In this period he was concerned above all with synthesising different styles of contemporary modernist painting.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
23 November 2018 – 15 September 2019
2019-09-15
2 May 2019 – 15 September 2019
2019-09-15
2019-05-02
IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (Valencia, Spain)
2018-11-23
Fernand Léger
Loan-out
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/
2 May 2019 – 14 September 2019
2019-09-14
2019-05-02
IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (Valencia, Spain)
2018-11-23
Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures
Exhibition
Playing Card and Pipe
support: 600 × 918 mm
frame: 842 × 1166 × 74 mm
Presented by Mrs Fanny Wadsworth 1951
<p>Playing cards and clay pipes had been common  elements in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubist</span></a> <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> <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of the  period circa 1910-14. They introduced a measure of  easy legibility, as well as a note of simple  domesticity, into these 'difficult' works. In  incorporating a playing card and pipe in this  painting Léger seems to have been alluding to the  earlier <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/avant-garde" title="Glossary definition for 'Avant-garde'"><span>avant-garde</span></a> movement. However, he chose to  combine them with types of imagery that were  antithetical to Cubism: organic nature (the  leaves) 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/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstraction</span></a> (the geometric and  irregular shapes). In this period he was concerned  above all with synthesising different styles of  contemporary <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/modernism" title="Glossary definition for 'Modernism'"><span>modernist</span></a> painting.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
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-playing-card-and-pipe-n05991" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05991</span></a> </span><b>Carte et Pipe</b><span> (Playing Card and Pipe) 1928 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'F. LÉGER. 28' b.r. and 'Nature-Morte | F. LÉGER. 28' on back of canvas</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 36 1/8 (60 x 91.5)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Mrs F. Wadsworth in memory of Edward Wadsworth 1951</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
With Léonce Rosenberg (Galerie de l'Effort Moderne), Paris (purchased from the artist); Edward Wadsworth, London; Mrs F. Wadsworth, London </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Léonce Rosenberg's <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/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> of this work is entitled on the back 'Playing Card and Pipe'; it is also listed under this title and as 'Playing Card and Pipe. <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>'. </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N05990" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N05990');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N05990</span></a><span>
and <span>N05991</span> have consecutive numbers in his photographic records (1108 and 1109 respectively), which seems to confirm that they were painted at more or less the same time and that Edward Wadsworth probably bought both of them on the same occasion. This phase of Léger's <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> had considerable influence on Wadsworth's own work. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>A preliminary study in oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> for the present <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, measuring 27 x 46cm, is reproduced in </span><i>Les Grandes Collections Belges: Collection G. Van Geluwe</i><span> (Brussels 1956), No.60, under the title 'Still Life with a Pipe'. It is now in the collection of Marcel Mabille of Rhode-St-Genèse, near Brussels. </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.419-20, reproduced p.419</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction clothing and personal items domino geometric leaf non-representational objects pipe plants and flowers playing card sports and games