La Roue de l’échelle 1947

Fernand Léger made this painting, *La Roue de l’échelle*, with oil on canvas, and look at that ladder and wheel! I imagine Léger standing back, squinting, tilting his head—that's what I do. What must he have been thinking? Maybe something like, "I'm going to mash up the mechanical with the organic!" The ladder and wheel feel almost like characters on a stage. They’re solid forms, but he animates them with color and playful arrangements. Those primary colors feel so confident, don't they? The red flower- or hand-like shapes punctuate the scene, a reminder that even in a world of steel and cogs, there's room for life, for growth, for a little bit of the unexpected. Léger's in dialogue with the Cubists and Futurists, but he's doing his own thing, making something both rigorous and full of joie de vivre.