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Kneeling Woman (Femme a Genou), 1921 is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Description
Kneeling Woman (Femme a Genou) is an oil on canvas painting done by French painter Fernand Leger. During the 1920's Leger focus his attention on the human figure, in this particular painting, the subject of the woman kneels in front of the busy abstract background, whose dominant vertical and horizontal forms reflect the influence of Mondrian. To Leger and the Purists, man was the most perfect of natural machines. Leger's work engages in a dialogue between representation and abstraction, which would subsequently become the focus of his career.

The sense of flatness is retained by the unclear positioning of her legs, the background is flattened and deliberately foreshortened. A palette choice of luminous purples, blacks, yellow and green make up the background of Leger's Femme a Genou. The painting has been featured in two exhibitions: Leger Exhibition, AGO (1963) and Leger Purist Paris, Tate Gallery.

Historical information
Leger was born into a modest upbringing, he came from a peasant family, but in 1900 he moved to Paris for the first time he became the painter of the modern industrial city, which remained as the focus of his work until 1920. It was during this time period that he painted Kneeling Woman (Femme a Genou), a particularly suave and refined example of 1921. As a contemporary of cubist artists, he was acquainted with Braque and Picasso, he drew his inspiration from their style and transformed his block-like figures into a highly personal form of curvilinear cubism.

Acquisition
Purchase, Walter C. Laid Law Endowment 1963.