Femmes au perroquet

In Femmes au perroquet, Léger's infectious sense of fun is palpable in the wide, open faces of the figures within the composition and especially the bird itself. A sense of dynamism is introduced by the ambiguous leaves or feathers which appear to be gracefully fluttering down the composition. Léger's restrained palette adds to the vitality of the picture: rendered in black, white and a vivid red, it has all the more striking a visual impact.
The present work relates to Composition aux deux perroquets, a monumental canvas that Léger painted in 1935-1939 which is now in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (Bauquier, no. 881). Where in this canvas, Léger was clearly playing with a range of volumetric forms, rendered through tonal variations in his colors, in Les femmes au perroquet he has abandoned such illusionism, instead harnessing the rich visual effect of the deep, glowing red background, the bold black outlines and the brilliant white of the monumental figures, bird and trees.