Lost Fernand Léger painting rediscovered behind another canvas
A painting by Fernand Léger has been discovered behind another canvas after being assumed lost for over a century. The unnamed piece from the artist’s Smoke on the Rooftops series was found behind Léger’s Bastille Day. The find was announced by Hague studio Redivivus, which was responsible for the painting’s restoration.
Experts believe that the newly discovered work forms part of his formative series of paintings of the Paris skyline, which Léger worked on from his studio. It was previously thought that only seven works from the series were still in circulation.
Bastille Day was given as a gift by Léger to his friend Marc Duchene 110 years ago. Duchene was killed in the First World War, and the family found it too painful to display the painting. As a result, it remained hidden in their private collection until 1999, when Duchene’s heirs sold it to the Dutch Triton Collection Foundation, which also includes works by Monet, Picasso and van Gogh.
Bastille Day is the property of the foundation, meaning that the painting on the reverse is, too. Conservators were aware that work had been done on the back of the canvas, but it was believed that whatever had been painted there was beyond restoration. That didn’t stop the owners from asking Gwendolyn Boeve-Jones, director of the Hague-based Studio Redivivus, to take a closer look.
After removing the backboard, Boeve-Jones and her team used Advanced Imaging techniques to reveal outlines of smoke rising above the Parisian skyline. Interestingly, the painting includes aspects of the abstract style Fernand Léger would develop in later life.“It’s not just that the painting was covered up, that’s interesting to a degree – but what we’ve found is the role that this must have played in his journey,” Boeve-Jones concluded.
