A cofounder of twentieth-century modernism, Fernand Léger is without a doubt one of the great artists of the last century. In fact, Léger was the only major modern artist who chose modernity itself as the primary subject of a body of work that captured urban life in all its complexity and contradiction. Léger had a highly personal style, in which objects and bodies are given equal emphasis. Painted in bold, dark outlines and primary colors, his compositions seem to float on the picture surface.

In 1903, Léger was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. By 1906, he had met Alexander Archipenko, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, and Marc Chagall, and in 1910, Léger exhibited for the first time with Picasso and Braque. Even though Léger saw himself as one of the initiators of Cubism, his work stands apart from the rest of the Cubists. Unlike Picasso, Braque, and Gris, who at that time worked mostly in the context of still lifes, Léger was drawn to urban scenes. His canvases are an amalgam-ation of influences that are reminiscent of Italian Futurism, Picasso’s neoclassical depictions of the human form, and the geometric abstractions of the Dutch De Stijl movement.

Léger’s Composition aux deux figures not only synthesizes these influences but is also an excellent example of the artist’s working methods, which included the production of groups of works relating to specific themes. Juxtaposing the organic shapes of two monumental female dancers with the sharp edges of a De Stijl–inspired geometric abstraction in primary colors, the entire composition floats in front of a cloudlike shape, illustrating Léger’s signature style perfectly.