La Femme Aux Cheveux Noirs 1950

Fernand Léger made this drawing, 'La Femme Aux Cheveux Noirs', with ink on paper, using black to capture the essence of a woman's face and hands. You can imagine him, hunched over the paper, the tip of the brush dancing, decisive. I like to think of what it might have been like for Léger, deciding where to put each line, each curve. The ink is so solid, so sure of itself. Look at the thick lines that define the woman’s hair and hands. They’re bold, confident. And then the delicacy of the lines that give her the jewellery around her wrist! I'm interested in the way the hands seem to both reveal and conceal her face, like a game of peek-a-boo. Léger, like so many of us painters, was in dialogue with the art of his time, trying to find new ways of seeing and representing the world. He keeps the conversation of art alive, inviting us to look, to question, and to feel, like we're all connected by a big, messy, beautiful thread.