The Railway Crossing
Fernand Léger
FERNAND LÉGER, 1919. OIL ON CANVAS.
Informed and inspired by the fledgling Cubism of Picasso and Braque, Léger imbued the movement with a joyousness expressed in curvature and color. He saw machines and industrialisation as subjects just as important as people in his work, and the optimism he felt for the modern age is clear in every brushstroke. This was a study for a larger piece named ‘The Level Crossing’, and the scaffolding, tubular pipes, and signposts depicted take on an almost photo-pop art quality as the industrial workings of a train yard are transformed into a wonderland of bright shapes and shifting perspectives. Trains long represented the beginning of a new age, and in this study for what Léger would consider a portrait of sorts, he elevates the elder statesman of modernity into a beacon of hope for the future, and a triumph of the contemporary age.