Spring (from the cycle: The Four Seasons)

The four seasons is one of the oldest decorative subjects there is, worked into tapestries and painted onto ceilings for centuries. Léger took it up in 1928 for a set of four canvases, of which this Spring is one. The timing is worth knowing. He was just moving past his strictest, machine-tidy years, and you can see his forms beginning to loosen, the rigid rectangles giving a little ground to rounder, more organic shapes. He treats the season as an arrangement of bold colour and clear form, the idea of spring rather than any particular meadow. All four canvases hang together in Basel, so a visitor can follow the cycle as Léger built it, one year's work on a single old theme.