Nadia CHODASIEWICZ-LEGER (1904-1982) - Lot 194

Nadia CHODASIEWICZ-LEGER (1904-1982) Suprematist composition Pencil and gouache on paper, signed lower right (small chips and stains). 64 x 49 cm (view) Nadia LEGER, born Nadia CHODASIEWICZ in 1904 in Ossetishchi, is a painter of Belarusian origin. After completing her training at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, she moved to Paris in 1925 with her first husband, the Polish painter Stanislaw GRABOWSKI, and enrolled at the Académie Moderne, directed by Fernand LEGER and Amédée OZENFANT. Two years later, she divorced her husband and began a relationship with Fernand LEGER. Politically committed, Nadia joined the French Communist Party in 1933, for which she produced a large number of works. During the Second World War, while Fernand LEGER was in exile in the United States, she joined the Resistance. She married Fernand LEGER in 1952, the year of her first solo exhibition at Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Fernand LEGER's muse, she devoted the rest of her life to preserving, promoting and enhancing his works, founding the Musée Fernand LEGER in Biot and the Ferme-Musée Fernand LEGER in the painter's family home in Lisores. From Suprematism to Cubism to Socialist Realism, his style and inspirations evolved with his encounters (KANDINSKY, MONDRIAN, ARP, PICCASSO, CHAGALL...) and the major trends of the 20th century. An artist who long remained in the shadow of her husband, this fascinating painter is now captivating the art world.