PARIS.- On 4th June 2018, during the Impressionist & Modern auction, Artcurial will disperse the André Lejard collection alongside Vincent van Gogh’s « Raccommodeuses de filets dans les dunes » and 5 works by Paul Gauguin.

Comprising 31 pieces (paintings, sculptures, books, drawings), this exceptional group of art of is a reflection of the passions of the person who patiently gathered them into one collection: editor cum collector André Lejard. While Fernand Léger is undoubtedly the central figure of the set with 4 paintings and 8 aquarelle drawings, Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Derain, Laurens, Villon, Miró, Ernst, Tanguy also make an appearance.

André Lejard is a discreet but essential figure of the French editing world between 1920 and 1950. Chief editor of Art et Métiers Graphiques magazine, one of the most prestigious publications from between the two wars in France, he also was member of the original personalities involved in Éditions du Chêne, created in 1941 in Paris by editor Maurice Girodias. He devoted a large part of his career to the publication.

In parallel to his activity with Editions du Chêne, André Lejard pens several books, including books devoted to the art of publication, history of tapestry and the relations between visual and poetic arts. We owe him monographs on Henri Matisse and André Derain.

His environment partnered art and edition, his relations in the literary world became far more than that of an editor, as demonstrated by his correspondence with
Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Mac Orlan, Paul Éluard and Paul Valéry. It is easy to imagine that it was in this manner that he met Fernand Léger. The bonds he shared with the artist were both constant and essential.

Fernand Léger / André Lejard:
A powerful bond
André Lejard easily transcends from his art editor activity and critique to collector, primarily because of his taste in art, secondarily because of his numerous and divers relationships with contemporary painters. He entertained particularly strong bonds with Fernand Léger, as demonstrated by the correspondence between the two men, carefully preserved by the family.

We thus find no less than 6 Fernand Léger paintings in the collection. Amongst them, 4 will be auctioned on 4th June by Artcurial, including the famous Elément mécanique 1922, estimate €2,000,000 – 3,000,000/ $2,500,000 – 3,700,000. Three still-lives will also be presented, of which two painted the same year, in 1937: Les trois fleurs et les dominos (estimate: €600,000 – 800,000/ $740,000 – 985,000) and Nature morte au vase bleu (estimate : €900,000 – 1,300,000/ $1,120,000 – 1,240,000). The 1947 canvas Fleurs et dominos carries an estimate of €400,000 – 600,000/ $495,000 – 740,000).

Beside these emblematic pieces, numerous lithographs and books illustrated and autographed by Fernand Léger are gathered, such as the famous Cirque published in 1950 by Tériade (estimate: €12,000 – 15,000/ $15,000 – 18,500) and drawings, such as the poetic ink on paper Deux femmes, estimate €150,000- 200,000/ $185,000 – 246,000.

The set is varied, ranging from Fernand Léger’s Machiniste period to decorative compositions staging objects, alongside costumes for the Swedish Ballet and monumental figures from the 1930’s and a very personal auto portrait on a four-sous piece of paper, folded in two (estimate €5,000 – 7,000 / $6,200 –
8,700).

Baigneuses, by André Derain
Another rare, original and unexpected piece from the Lejard collection: an André Darain gouache drawing, Baigneuses, estimate €80,000 – 120,000/ $98,000 – 148,000. This utterly Fauve drawing, placed approximately in 1906, represents a subject untranslated in the artist’s painting: two female nudes in nature. However, the drawing has a contemporary equivalent in one of Matisse’s painting, the 1905-1906, Le bonheur de vivre, from the Barnes Foundation. The same world of harmony between man and nature is represented by these two great painters.

Derain’s drawings from the Fauve period, which was both short and extremely intense, are rare, Derain having concentrated all his efforts into painting. The technique and style of Les Baigneuses strikes both by its hasty style, the evenness of its strokes and the composition’s authority. The style does not deceive, clearly of the same style as Derain’s painting, comparable to the 1905 painting Le Pont de Collioure (Troyes, Musée d’art moderne). The two works are characterised by a simplified composition, summarised forms, of rapid strokes as well as vivid colours and pointillists accents.

Baigneuses, a masterpiece of an intimate collection, hanging for years in André Lejard and his wife’s sitting room, was a witness to the collector’s family life as described by their grandson, François Lejard « I sleep in the sitting room, underneath Les Baigneuses. They guard my sleep. Their light has always shone through the darkness, kept demons at bay. They radiated into my mornings. »

Illustrated books
Books could not be overlooked by André Lejard. Accompanying the works of Leger and Derain is a series of books illustrated by the greatest artists of the time: Braque (Hésiode, Théogonie, 1955, estimate : €5,000 – 6,000 / $6,200 – 7,400), Picasso (Jaime Sabartès in Picasso’s workshop, 1957, estimate : €2,000 – 3,000 / $2,500 – 3 ,7 00), Matisse (Henri de Montherlant, Phasiphaé Chant de Minos, Les Crétois, 1944, estimate : €5,000 – 7,000 / $6,200 – 8,700), a Miró (Yvon Taillandier, Je travaille comme un jardinier, 1963 ; Alfred Jarry, Ubu roi, 1966, estimate : €12,000 – 15,000 / $15,000 – 19,000).