Fernand Léger, Nature Morte, 1927 ​Oil on canvas 130.2 x 88.9 cm. (51 1/4 x 35 in.)  A vertical divide bisects the canvas of Nature morte into two unequally sized sections. The presence of two objects dominates the composition: a squat red pot of flowers on the right hand side, offset on the left by the visible portion of a tall black vase.  The flowers are ostensibly the only organic element in the present composition, yet they appear artificial; like everything else in the painting, their material substance has been reduced and purified, as if tooled and polished by means of a high-tech industrial process. Léger has reinforced the chosen vertical format of this composition by employing numerous straight up-and-down elements, using the curved lines and contours in the flowers, pot and vase to counteract and mitigate the overall geometric rigidity of the composition. By suggesting the presence of a floor or table-top in the foreground, Léger has created an illusion of receding space, into which the graphically flat rectilinear forms that comprise the setting fall into place, establishing the spatial schematic of an interior, with a mirror over a mantelpiece on the right, and a window at left. Contrasting objects both large and small, Léger has affixed his images of two French postage stamps to the axial column near the center of the composition. The painter has emphasized the hardness of his forms by rendering them in an austere palette based on the stark opposition of red and black, mediated in places by pale yellow, supplemented with two diagonally opposed patches of an earthy mauve tone. There are tensions of all kinds within this canvas--nonetheless, the architectural grandeur of Léger's overall conception steadies the composition and expresses a transcendent vision of stasis and serenity.
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