Two Lovers in the Landscape

The painting is a typical example of Légers late style. Towards the close of his life the painter fully liberated colour from its dependence on form. Léger painted the picture in the year of his new marriage after the death of his wife. He treated the motif of the sitting man with the woman standing behind him, her hand on his shoulder, in two more preparátory compositions, both dated 1953, and then in the definitive painting Outing in the Country, 1954. As his end approached, Léger turned to the most elementary motif of humankind - faith in love and its life-giving power. The artist visited Prague in 1955, shortly before his death, on the occasion of the Spartakiad, a major sports and gymnastics event.