NEWPORT HOUSE October 20th & 21st 2026

78 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 “Still Life with Chair,” c. 1904, O.O.C., Signed l.l. ‘Leger’, 48cms x 34cms (19” x 13½”) (1) Note: Although Signed ‘Leger’, in terms of style this still-life painting presents a challenge in that it does not accord with Fernand Léger’s best-known works, which follow the ‘cylinder, cone and sphere’mode of Cubism, sometimes referred to as ‘Tubism’. However, early in his career, when he had first come to Paris from Normandy, Léger was more inspired by the Impressionists and Cézanne, and the fact that this work is not in his mature mode does not rule out the signature being genuine. An impoverished student, Léger arrived Paris in 1900 and struggled to establish himself, studying under Jean Léon Gérôme and at the Academie Julian. Few of his early works survive. In a letter to Daniel Kahnweiler he wrote: “Everything that I painted between 1902 and 1908 was destroyed along the way. It was the most difficult period of my life, but I guess that all painters have to go through it. It is the time when you’re under the influence of something; then comes the transition period, and the creative part.” Irrespective of any signature or attribution, this still life is clearly a confident painting. The treatment of the central subject, a group of kitchen utensils on a table, immediately suggests a link with the early paintings of Picasso and Braque. In the early twentieth century, these artists reinvigorated the genre of still-life, employing visual devices including black outlines, bold patterns and a ‘flattening’ of the picture plane, using a high vantage point. In this still-life, a terracotta bowl rests on a chopping board, alongside a white jar and pottery container, the latter probably for salt. In the foreground, a rolling pin is laid diagonally on the table. The table is seen from above, slightly canted, with its legs off-centre. A lively piece of furniture, it has a green-and-black chevron patterned top, a blue cloth and legs painted red. The patterned table top, diagonals of the chairback and cylindrical bowl and pots combine to form a strong composition. Coming as it does from the collection of a noted picture dealer, the provenance of this work, and the fact that it has been re-lined, make it worthy of note. However, for the present, the attribution to Léger must remain tentative. Peter Murray 2026 €8,000 - €12,000 554. Fernand Leger (1881-1955) (attributed) Illustration of similar work by Fernand Leger