Fernand Leger (1881-1955) was born in Argentan, Normandy.  In 1900 he moved to Paris where he worked as an architect's draughtsman while he studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and the Academie Julian.  In 1909, Leger met Robert Delaunay and became a key figure of Salon Cubism.  He produced works for the Salons in 1911 and 1912.  In 1913, Leger created Contrasts of Form which is one of the earliest near-abstract works earning him the label "tubist".  Leger fought in World War I and was outraged by the carnage he witnessed.  After the war, he became interested in Purism which resulted in his works becoming more structured and ordered.  He was a brilliant art lecturer.  He spent World War II in the United States returning to France after the war.

Leger was one of the major contributors to the Cubist style.  Always an independent-minded artist, he extended his own variety of Cubism to include powerfully modeled forms.  His later works gave way to flat patterns of brilliant color upon which he chiefly used strong linear definitions.  He was a major influence in the revival of color lithography and graphics after World War II.  Much of his earlier work prefigured the art of the 1960s.  The clarity of his expression are a distinctive phenomenon in modern art.