La femme au chat (1921)

Léger, Fernand (1881-1955)

La femme au chat (Woman with a Cat)
1921
Oil on canvas, 130.8 × 90.5 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Woman with a Cat belongs to a group of monumental female figures that Léger painted throughout the 1920s. Motionless and frontal, this colossal nude might be made of stone or metal, evoking at once a classical sculpture and a futuristic robot. While 1920’s subject is rooted in European, particularly French, artistic traditions, his streamlined style reflects contemporary design aesthetics that the painter’s friend, the architect Le Corbusier, advocated and popularized. (MET)