Fernand Leger - Original Drawing

Watercolor on paper, titled on the reverse “No. G.31.” Cover Design for Europa”
Dimensions: 27 x 21 cm
Paper is warped; traces of a tab on the back.
This is one of the cover designs commissioned from Fernand Léger for the 1925 Europa Almanach.
The *Europa Almanach*, published in 1925 and co-edited by the German art critics Carl Einstein and Paul Westheim by Gustav Kiepenheuer in Potsdam, aimed to catalog the European artistic avant-gardes of the interwar period, in the fields of fine arts, literature, architecture, and theater, through contributions by major figures of the era such as Pablo Picasso, Le Corbusier, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, André Gide, and Jean Cocteau—with Fernand Léger designing the cover. The volume brings together approximately 100 visual artworks and 150 literary contributions. Conceived in a deeply cosmopolitan spirit, the Europa Almanach embodies the fleeting cultural dialogue of a Europe then in the midst of reconstruction. Unfortunately, due to the tense political climate linked to the rise of fascism, no further issues were published after this first edition.
In this study, Léger applies the concepts of his “new realism” and the “battle of colors,” which he developed in the early 1920s. His composition uses tubular forms, strict geometric lines, and contrasting blocks that evoke the dynamism of the industrial city as experienced at that time, combined with bold colors. The word “EUROPA” is conceived as a graphic architectural element in its own right. The letters are integrated directly into the colored forms.

Handwritten authentication on the reverse by Nadia Léger, widow of Fernand Léger, signed and dated June 13, 1956
The authenticity of this work has been kindly confirmed by the Léger Committee