The Painting That Set Fernand Leger's Auction Record

Fernand Leger, Contraste De Formes (1913) sold for $70.06m at Christie's in New York on November 13, 2017. The oil on burlap work had been traded five times before.

In October 1913, while working on his "Contrastes", Léger signed an exclusive three-year contract with his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the champion of Cubist artists, including Picasso and Georges Braque. He bought Léger's equally radical paintings as soon as they were ready and planned to exhibit and re-sell them as he thought best. That typically meant placing them in group shows outside of France rather than solo shows in Paris.

Kahnweiler, who was born in Germany, provided Léger with financial security for the first time. His mother, who made sure the deal was properly notarized, declared with relief: “Fernand is going to earn his living.”

With the outbreak of the First World War, all these plans were shattered, however. Kahnweiler was declared an enemy of France and had to leave Paris for Switzerland. The stock of avant-garde art he was forced to leave behind at his shuttered Galerie Kahnweiler was seized during the conflict.

Contraste De Formes had never been sold at auction before. The work had been in the family of collector Hans Arnhold since the 1950s and was consigned by a charitable foundation established by his daugher Anna Maria Keller, and her husband, the banker Stephen Kellen. Proceeds of the record breaking sale went towards its philanthropic activities.

The sale beat Leger’s previous auction record by $30.82m, a 78% rise. The artist's previous record was set by Étude Pour La Femme En Bleu (1912), which sold for $39.24m at Sotheby's on May 07, 2008. The work had not been traded before.