Provenance
Private collection
Note: In February 1950 an exhibition of Fernand Léger’s work was staged at the Tate Gallery in London which was the first major exhibition of his work in Britain. Despite being one of the international leaders of the modern movement in painting, Léger’s work had rarely been seen in Britain compared with artists of a comparable stature like Braque, Matisse and Picasso. Doris Hatt was not only captivated by Léger’s monumental modern style with its mighty emphasis on form, colour and design, but also by Léger’s very public commitment to the social function of art. Léger had joined the Communist Party in 1945 and was very outspoken in his admiration and support of the working people who, in his romanticised vision, had built the new society that celebrated aesthetic order and simplicity in the streamlined age of machinery and mass production. Doris Hatt instinctively identified with Léger’s solidarity with the people and his insistence that the enjoyment of modern art should not only be the preserve of an educated elite.