The quintessential painter of the machine age, Léger observed the effects of modern technology in the trenches as a solider in the French army during World War I. Featuring workers whose bodies appear to be assembled from standardized industrial parts, The Builders exemplifies the style that Léger developed after the war to convey his belief that all of modern life was succumbing to the machine. He wrote in a letter in 1922, "The contemporary environment is clearly the manufactured and ‘mechanical’ object; this is slowly subjugating the breasts and curves of women, fruit, the soft landscape."
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): FLEGER/ 20; signed, dated, and inscribed (on reverse): LES quatre personnages / I'ETAT / F. LEGER 20
[Léonce Rosenberg, Paris, from 1920; purchased from the artist, for Fr 700, on October 21, 1920; inv. no. 7102]; [Louis Carré Gallery, Paris and New York, by 1945–51; sold on October 22, 1951 to Steinberg]; Muriel Kallis Steinberg, Chicago (1951–2006; her gift to MMA)
Paris. Galerie Louis Carré. "Fernand Léger: Peintures antérieures à 1940," January 16–February 5, 1945, unnumbered cat. (p. 14; as "Les quatres personnages").
New York. Louis Carré Gallery. "The Artist in the Machine Age," October 24–November 18, 1950, no. 7 (as "Les quatres personnages").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection," May 21–September 27, 1981, unnumbered cat. (p. 21; as "The Builders [Les Quatres Personnages]").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 17, 2007–February 3, 2008, extended to March 2, 2008, no. 4.
Douglas Cooper. Fernand Léger et le nouvel espace. Geneva, 1949, pp. IX, 85, ill. p. 94, calls it "Deux hommes dans un échafaudage".
Christian Zervos. Fernand Léger: Oeuvres de 1905 à 1952. Paris, 1952, p. 93, ill. p.45, calls it "Quatre personnages (Four Figures)" and locates it at the Galerie Louis Carré, Paris.
Pierre Descargues. Fernand Léger. Paris, 1955, p. 60, ill., calls it "Les quatre personnages".
Grace Glueck. "Met Is Given a $12 Million Art Collection." New York Times (December 10, 1980), p. B7, calls it "Four Figures".
Hilton Kramer. "Modernist Show Moves Met Firmly into Art of 20th Century." New York Times (May 22, 1981), p. C21.
John Russell. "Léger's Contagious Enthusiasm." New York Times (August 16, 1981), p. D24.
William S. Lieberman inAn American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1981, p. 20, ill. p. 21 (color).
John Dorsey. "New Wing Lifts the Met Into the 20th Century." Sun (Baltimore, Md.) (February 1, 1987), p. 12K.
Georges Bauquier assisté de Nelly Maillard. Fernand Léger: Catalogue raisonné. Vol. 2, 1920–1924. Paris, 1992, pp. 30–31, no. 209, ill., calls it "Les Quatres Personnages".
Christian Derouet, ed. Correspondances Fernand Léger–Léonce Rosenberg, 1917–1937. Paris, 1996, pp. 76–77, no. 82 n. 3, p. 268 no. 7102.
Carolyn Lanchner inAbstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow, Lisa Mintz Messinger, and Nan Rosenthal. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 20–23, no. 4, ill. (color).
Richard Meyer. "Changing Partners: Richard Meyer on 'Reimagining Modernism' at the Met." Artforum 54 (November 2015), p. 146.
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