Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger Les Rosenbergs Around 1951 Brush and India ink on cream-coloured paper. 52.5 x 54.5 cm. Monogrammed 'F.L'. lower right in black. Stamped with the artist's initials and inscribed "oeuvre authentique F. Leger - N. Leg" verso in blue by Nadia Léger. Provenance Christie's London, Impressionist & Modern Watercolours & Drawings, 4.12.1979, lot 36; private collection, France Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were the only American civilians to be charged with espionage during the Cold War. In the early 1950s their criminal trial for weaponry espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union drew attention around the world. The extent of their guilt still remains controversial today. Only decades later did information and statements by those involved in the trial become public, indicating that important fundamental constitutional principles had been violated in the context of the trial. In spite of widespread international protests by figures such as Pope Pius XII, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Einstein as well as many artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Frida Kahlo and Fernand Léger, they were both condemned to death on 5 April 1951 and executed on 19 June 1953. Léger's commitment to the cause of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg found expression in a lithograph on silk, whose sale was meant to finance the couple's defence. Supplemented with the words “Liberté, Paix, Solidarité”, which provided the work's title, this scarf utilised the double portrait with a dove from our large-format ink drawing as its motif. This portrait is characterised by a profoundly humanist and pacifist spirit and is to be understood as Fernand Léger's iconic declaration of solidarity with Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, whose tragic fate has been dealt with by an extremely broad array of pop-cultural figures over the decades - from Charlie Chaplin to Bob Dylan.